Spatial Polarities and their Impact on the Dynamics of Place in Contemporary Saudi Travelogue

Abstract

Travelogue as a literary genre is closely related to the journey and interacts with its various elements, one of the most important being the place with its poetic dynamics, as it has given contemporary travel literature the vitality of literary fiction. Traditional travel literature typically reports topographical details of all the places described, in temporal and spatial stasis, whereas travelogue is characterized by its poetic dynamics, depicting the thoughts and feelings of the traveler in all of the places he visits and is emotionally affected by.

This study investigates the dynamics of place in Ghurba Bit’m Kartala (An Expatriation with the Taste of Kartala) through the spatial polarization technique of Bachelard and Lotman. It begins with a theoretical grounding in the introduction and methodology section, followed by three main sections and a conclusion. It offers critical opinions and employs descriptive analysis, first describing all features of the literary phenomenon, then analyzing it. The analysis reveals that place in Kartala is presented through the contents of the traveler’s mind and conscience, not via a topographical depiction of the place visited, except insofar as it increases the intensity of his mental and emotional absorption between the several spatial polarizations that make Kartala a dynamic place. Such polarities have contributed effectively to expressing the traveler’s assimilation of reality and reproducing it poetically in the work, thus classifying it as literary fiction.