Medieval English Travel: A Critical Anthology

Main Ideas

• Travel as a form of spiritual and cultural quest, revealing the inner world of the medieval individual through encounters with the unknown and the other
• Text as a window into the mentality of the era: by analyzing pilgrimage diaries, letters, and chronicles, the book uncovers how English travelers understood borders, wonders, and dangers of the world
• The interaction between East and West, where images of foreign lands become a mirror for one's own fears, desires, and prejudices
• Travel as a literary genre, in which reality and imagination intertwine to create new narrative forms and symbolic spaces
• The problem of authenticity and subjectivity: how personal experience, rumors, and legends shape collective perceptions of distant countries
• Pilgrimage and expedition as social and religious practices, reflecting the structure of medieval society and its ideas of sanctity, miracle, and trial