In Transit: Travel, Text, Empire

The essays gathered in In Transit focus on issues arising from the historical nexus between travel and imperialism. Contributors investigate the ways in which specific imperial projects were inextricably linked to developments in travel technologies and practices. At the same time, this collection reveals that imperial fantasies of exploration and conquest, whether actualized or not, irrevocably shaped the formulation of travel as a category of modern experience, as a rite/right of passage, and as a type of embodied knowledge. This dynamic, reciprocal relationship between imperialism and travel is examined in relation to written and pictorial documents produced at different historical moments and across a broad range of geographical locations, including India, Borneo, the Caribbean, South Africa, Australia, Britain, Polynesia, and Papua New Guinea.