Web-Books
in the Austria-Forum
Austria-Forum
Web-Books
Zeitschriften
Mobile Culture Studies The Journal
>mcs_lab> - Mobile Culture Studies, Volume 2/2020
Page - 36 -
  • User
  • Version
    • full version
    • text only version
  • Language
    • Deutsch - German
    • English

Page - 36 - in >mcs_lab> - Mobile Culture Studies, Volume 2/2020

Image of the Page - 36 -

Image of the Page - 36 - in >mcs_lab> - Mobile Culture Studies, Volume 2/2020

Text of the Page - 36 -

36 Mobile Culture Studies. The Journal 6 2o20 (Travel) Sandra Vlasta | Enlightening report versus enlightened traveller von jedermann, der ihm begegnet, angestaunt, bedauert, in Verdacht gehalten und geflohen wird […]’ (Moritz 2000: 82) [A traveller on foot in this country seems to be considered as a sort of wild man or out-of-the way being, who is stared at, pitied, suspected, and shunned by everybody that meets him (Moritz 1795: Chapter IX, no page number)]. Consequently, Moritz sometimes has trouble finding accommodation and even has to leave certain villages because he is not welcome. He is given an even worse reception when he pauses in the shade at the side of the road to read Milton’s Paradise Lost: [d]ie Vorbeireitenden und Fahrenden [gafften mich] immer mit einer solchen Verwunderung [an und machten] […] solche bedeutenden Mienen […], als ob sie mich für einen Verrückten hielten, so sonderbar mußte es ihnen vorkommen, einen Menschen an der öffentlichen Landstraße sitzen, und in einem Buche lesen zu sehen’ (Moritz 2000: 83) [those who rode or drove past me, stared at me with astonishment, and made many significant gestures as if they thought my head deranged; so singular must it needs have appeared to them to see a man sitting along the side of a public road and reading. (Moritz 1795: Chapter IX, no page number)] Still, Moritz continues to read and mentions it casually several times in his travelogue (see Moritz 2000: 93, 104, 132; at times he even reads while walking; see Moritz 2000: 155). In this way, Moritz creates an image of himself/the traveller as a walker and reader — ano- ther idiosyncrasy of his travelogue. The act of reading is at times even performed: Moritz cites what he reads so that the reader can experience the text as well (see the passage that recalls his experience of the cave discussed above, Moritz 2000: 132, and the passage referred to in footnote 19, Moritz 2000: 155). In this way, the reader is invited to understand and share the experience that is so important to him. It is an invitation to read Milton’s text, but also simply to be a rea- der, a traveller, a walker, and thus an enlightened subject. This intertextual strategy is part of the rhetoric of sensibility and sympathetic engagement of the reader that Alison Martin (2003, 2008a) detects in Moritz’s text. The process of walking, reading, and thinking eventually beco- mes so important to Moritz that he ascribes it to his alter ego, Anton Reiser, in the eponymous novel. It is an expression of illuminated emancipation and becomes emblematic of the trave- logue, an image that characterizes the text. IV Conclusion Both Forster (and his father) and Moritz were aware of the power of images as paratextual ele- ments and of their influence on the reader. From the outset, they saw them as integral elements of their travelogues that were either produced on the journey (such as Forster’s sketches) or for a written account (such as Chodowiecki and Meil’s images in Moritz’s travelogue). Thus, the images in the texts tell us a great deal about the genesis of the volumes in question. Both authors used them to underscore particular aspects of their texts, unique features that set them apart from the mass of travelogues of the time. In Georg Forster’s case, the images stress the scientific character of the journey. In Moritz’s case, the cover image of the first edition prepares the reader for a different experience of England and emphasizes the sublime, picturesque, and uncanny experience of the Peak Cavern, which is closely linked to Moritz’s reading of Milton’s Paradise Lost. What is more, together with the images of the walker and reader that he creates with words, it forms the ‘psychological’ aspect of his journey, a theme that he would explore in greater detail in later works.
back to the  book >mcs_lab> - Mobile Culture Studies, Volume 2/2020"
>mcs_lab> Mobile Culture Studies, Volume 2/2020
The Journal
Title
>mcs_lab>
Subtitle
Mobile Culture Studies
Volume
2/2020
Editor
Karl Franzens University Graz
Location
Graz
Date
2020
Language
German, English
License
CC BY 4.0
Size
21.0 x 29.7 cm
Pages
270
Categories
Zeitschriften Mobile Culture Studies The Journal
Web-Books
Library
Privacy
Imprint
Austria-Forum
Austria-Forum
Web-Books
>mcs_lab>