Graham Greene’s Journey Without Maps and the Fascination of the Abomination
The narrator of this travel book shows himself to be fascinated by what is abominable: disease, war crimes, cruelty and nightmares are the main examples in the text. He opens a critical dialogue on this subject with his two main hypotexts, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and, especially, The Blue Book, a...
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| Language: | English |
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Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)
2009-07-01
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| Series: | E-REA |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/erea/849 |
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| author | John AIREY |
| author_facet | John AIREY |
| author_sort | John AIREY |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The narrator of this travel book shows himself to be fascinated by what is abominable: disease, war crimes, cruelty and nightmares are the main examples in the text. He opens a critical dialogue on this subject with his two main hypotexts, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and, especially, The Blue Book, a British government publication; the abomination is found to be polysemic. His journey transforms the supposedly primitive Liberian hinterland into a writerly text (Barthes). At the same time, the narrator uses the part of the country he is exploring as a metaphor for the unconscious; hence he compares his voyage to Freud’s ‘journey’. ‘Civilisation’, of which Christianity is often used as a symbol in the text, is on the wrong track according to the narrator since it is based on the repression, if not the distortion, of a part of reality. To be sane is to refuse to do this and to engage in dialogue with the ‘political father’ (Barthes). The reader is encouraged to admit his fascination for this dark region and to undertake his own exploration of it. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-da966553ef6d4d5aa45ae26fce77776a |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 1638-1718 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2009-07-01 |
| publisher | Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | E-REA |
| spelling | doaj-art-da966553ef6d4d5aa45ae26fce77776a2025-08-20T02:44:56ZengLaboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)E-REA1638-17182009-07-017110.4000/erea.849Graham Greene’s Journey Without Maps and the Fascination of the AbominationJohn AIREYThe narrator of this travel book shows himself to be fascinated by what is abominable: disease, war crimes, cruelty and nightmares are the main examples in the text. He opens a critical dialogue on this subject with his two main hypotexts, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and, especially, The Blue Book, a British government publication; the abomination is found to be polysemic. His journey transforms the supposedly primitive Liberian hinterland into a writerly text (Barthes). At the same time, the narrator uses the part of the country he is exploring as a metaphor for the unconscious; hence he compares his voyage to Freud’s ‘journey’. ‘Civilisation’, of which Christianity is often used as a symbol in the text, is on the wrong track according to the narrator since it is based on the repression, if not the distortion, of a part of reality. To be sane is to refuse to do this and to engage in dialogue with the ‘political father’ (Barthes). The reader is encouraged to admit his fascination for this dark region and to undertake his own exploration of it.https://journals.openedition.org/erea/849intertextualityunconscious (the)transgressionrepressed knowledgemetaphor of reading |
| spellingShingle | John AIREY Graham Greene’s Journey Without Maps and the Fascination of the Abomination E-REA intertextuality unconscious (the) transgression repressed knowledge metaphor of reading |
| title | Graham Greene’s Journey Without Maps and the Fascination of the Abomination |
| title_full | Graham Greene’s Journey Without Maps and the Fascination of the Abomination |
| title_fullStr | Graham Greene’s Journey Without Maps and the Fascination of the Abomination |
| title_full_unstemmed | Graham Greene’s Journey Without Maps and the Fascination of the Abomination |
| title_short | Graham Greene’s Journey Without Maps and the Fascination of the Abomination |
| title_sort | graham greene s journey without maps and the fascination of the abomination |
| topic | intertextuality unconscious (the) transgression repressed knowledge metaphor of reading |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/erea/849 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT johnairey grahamgreenesjourneywithoutmapsandthefascinationoftheabomination |