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30 Mobile Culture Studies. The Journal 6 2o20 (Travel)
Sandra Vlasta | Enlightening report versus enlightened traveller
Damit auch das deutsche Publikum, neben meiner Beschreibung gegenwärtiger Reise, zugleich des
Capitain Cooks Nachrichten von derselben, ohne ausdrückliche Kosten, mit benutzen möchte; so
habe ich aus letzteren das Wichtigste hier in der deutschen Ausgabe eingeschaltet. [In order for the
German readers to be able to use, without any further costs, both my description of this journey and
Captain Cook’s, I have added the most important bits of the latter in this German edition. (Forster
1983: 19; translation mine)]
The fact that the plate that had hitherto only been included in Cook’s account was now also
available in Forster’s book gives further support to the argument that Forster’s book covered
everything contained in Cook’s.
In 2007, a new edition of Georg Forster’s Reise um die Welt was published in the biblio-
philic series Die Andere Bibliothek [The Library with a Difference] (Forster 2007). The aim
of this large book was to present Forster’s text alongside a selection of his sketches of plants and
animals that had been lying in the archives for over 200 years. The book is a beautiful volume
that highlights Forster’s drawing skills. Still, it is questionable whether this edition shows what
his travelogue might actually have looked like. Rather, as in earlier editions (see Forster 1983:
734), the insertion of images by William Hodges in the introduction to the new 2007 edition
reveals that paintings of landscapes and people illustrate Forster’s text much better than zoolo-
gical and botanical sketches. The original arrangement, which could not be realized, thus seems
to have been ideal, but it is difficult to judge whether Forster would have written a different
account had different images been available. In any case, Georg Forster’s travelogue was well
received in German-speaking countries upon its publication. This was thanks in part to the
spectacular voyage it described but equally due to the style, content and form of Forster’s wri-
ting. As I have tried to show, the images illustrate the text, but they also serve other purposes:
they underscore the visual aspect of travelling and writing about travel (as expressed in Forster’s
comment on the insufficiency of words when it comes to describing experiences), and they refer
to personal aspects of the journey, such as the Forsters’ relationship with Captain Cook. All in
all, Forster’s report and his use of images stress the enlightening character of the journey, which
he aspires to pass on to his readers. To a certain extent, Moritz does so as well, though in a
manner that is much more concentrated on the travelling subject.
III Karl Philipp Moritz’s enlightened German traveller in England
Moritz’s Reisen eines Deutschen in England im Jahre 1782 is an account of a short journey
from the end of May to the middle of July 1782 — a journey that took Moritz from London
to the North, to the Peak District and the Peak Cavern at Castelton, a rather unusual itine-
rary and destination for German travellers at the time as most restricted their visits mainly to
London, to the university towns of Oxford and Cambridge, and to the new industrial cities of
Manchester and Birmingham (see Maurer 2010: 19).13 Moritz then returned south to London
via Loughborough, Leicester, and Northampton. He travelled on foot for most of his journey
— another peculiarity and a mode of travel that had an effect on the journey, which is charac-
terized by a connection between walking, reading, observing (or rather, experiencing) nature,
13 Moritz wrote two travelogues: besides the one on England, he published one about his later journey to Italy
(Moritz 1792–93).
>mcs_lab>
Mobile Culture Studies, Band 2/2020
The Journal
- Titel
- >mcs_lab>
- Untertitel
- Mobile Culture Studies
- Band
- 2/2020
- Herausgeber
- Karl Franzens University Graz
- Ort
- Graz
- Datum
- 2020
- Sprache
- deutsch, englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY 4.0
- Abmessungen
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Seiten
- 270
- Kategorien
- Zeitschriften Mobile Culture Studies The Journal