Bruce Chatwin, The Songlines

Richard Utz (Georgia Institute of Technology)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of York), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1987

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

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This 1987 travelogue, Bruce Chatwin's most famous and hotly disputed text, is the autobiografictional fulfilment of a writerly dream which the author had been unable to pursue in the late 1960s and early 1970s. After he had ended his impressive career at Sotheby's London office (1959-66) because of a psychosomatic eye problem, Chatwin began to study archaeology at the University of Edinburgh. Several field trips to Africa and Afghanistan during his course of study launched his idea to write an all-encompassing, scientific theory of nomadology. With this extensive project he intended to prove that the human race, in the process of becoming human, had acquired a strong migratory drive or instinct to walk long distances through the seasons. This instinctive wanderlust had been repressed into…

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965 words

Citation: Utz, Richard. "The Songlines". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 March 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7782, accessed 27 November 2024.]

Bruce Chatwin, The Songlines

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