Paratexts in Travel Blogs, Travel Books\u27 Hypertextuality, and Medial Format Usage

In his article Paratexts in Travel Blogs, Travel Books\u27 Hypertextuality, and Medial Format Usage Stefano Calzati compares a number of contemporary travel books and travel blogs. Calzati\u27s objective is to promote a bridging approach between the digital and the analogue that goes beyond their differences. He posits a critique socio-linguistics where online multimodal texts are analyzed by identifying layers of analysis. Against these compositional models, Calzati suggests a double move: on the one hand, he applies Gérard Genette\u27s notion of paratext to travel blogs and on the other he extends the concept of hypertextuality to travel books. From his analyzis it emerges that in travel blogs hosted on platforms paratextual elements tend to invade the space of the text and challenge the blogger\u27s authority. At the same time, travel books turn out to be more hypertextual than travel blogs hosted on platforms. Calzati\u27s study is complemented by interviews with a selection of travel writers which show that bloggers whose blogs are on platforms have a weak awareness of the potentialities of the medium and that their media-related choices are often arbitrary. Individual bloggers, by contrast, have a deeper understanding of the medium\u27s potential

Mediating Travel Writing, Mediated China: The Middle Kingdom in Travel Books and Blogs

This thesis looks at travel writing about China crossing three main research axes. The main one is represented by the comparison between Western-authored contemporary travel books and travel blogs. The majority of studies on Western travel writing about China focuses on pre-modern and modern texts, while much less attention has been dedicated to contemporary travelogues. At the same time, by projecting the genre onto the web, this study offers a mapping of the blogosphere and questions the literary and epistemological status of travel writing. Through a close reading analysis, the aim is to outline medial and rhetorical differences and similarities between travel books and blogs, particularly in terms of how China is represented, as well as the way in which travel writers perceive themselves. In this latter respect, interviews with travel authors and bloggers are also included. The second research axis explores the diachronic evolution of Western-authored travel books about the Middle Kingdom. Building on the findings of the first part of the thesis, the analysis looks at texts from the end of the 19th century throughout the 20th century, complementing the attention to pre-modern and modern travel accounts of earlier studies on travel writing about China. The goal is to understand if and how the genre and the representation of China have changed over the last century. The third axis is cross-cultural: in the last chapter a number of contemporary Chinese-authored travel accounts are analyzed. Referring to existing literature about Chinese travel writing, to be highlighted are the rhetorical and medial differences between “classic” and contemporary texts, as well as between books and blogs. Concerning the first research axis, findings suggest that Western travel books are more diversified generically speaking than travel blogs. Moreover, while the former provide a rather composite representation of the country, the latter are mainly devoted to deliver objectified touristic information. As for the second research axis, no substantial shifts were detected in the genre’s features, or in the way in which China has been represented in Western travel writing during the 20th century. Lastly, it is advanced that Chinese travel books are deeply politicized, while travel blogs tend to convey a contemplative representation of the country, more in the spirit of “classic” Chinese travel writing. However, differently from Western writers, both Chinese authors and bloggers manage to portray China from a variety of points of view

From “Is” to the (News) World: How Facebook Jeopardized Its Life-Diary Nature and Occupied the Network

This article focuses on self-narratives and identity construction in the context of social networking sites (SNSs). It does so by discussing the findings of a research that had at its core a practice-based module titled “Facebook and Autobiography”, which was designed and taught at a major Hong Kong University. Through a cyber autoethnographic approach, which aligns to the methodological orientation of the second wave in narratology studies, the research explores how the infrastructure of Facebook affects the processes of self-narration in comparison with traditional written dairies. Contrary to previous studies, the interviews with students-participants and the analysis of their Facebook’s profiles suggest that the retrieval on Facebook of even small self-narratives is impaired by the fact that the platform has abandoned its life-diary orientation in favour of a news-based business model where the posthuman connotation of profiles prevails

Power and Representation in Anglo-American Travel Blogs and Travel Books about China

In his article Power and Representation in Anglo-American Travel Blogs and Travel Books about China Stefano Calzati presents a comparative analysis between two travel books and two travel blogs written by Anglo-American travellers about China. The assumption is that travel books and travel blogs, being two differently mediated forms of travel writing, share some similarities: they are autodiegetic narratives and they bear a (cross)cultural potential. Through a Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis I investigate how Anglo-American travel writers represent themselves and Chinese people as to what extent the definition of travel writing is medially affected; 2) to what extent the cross-cultural potential of travel writing is medially affected; and 3) how differences and similarities in appear in which Anglo American travellers represent themselves and the other

Digital Autoethnography & Connected Intelligence: Two Qualitative Practice-Based Teaching Methods for the Digital Humanities

In higher education we witness a unique conjuncture: on the one hand, students who attend academic courses are the first generation to have fully grown in a digitalized world; on the other hand, teachers, while having grown and studied in a still largely analogue world, have witnessed the evolution of today’s techno-society since its infancy. By connecting the field of the Digital Humanities with education, this article discusses the conception, design and results of two practice-based teaching experiences which were aimed at exploring the tensions embedded in our daily use of digital technologies, as well as in today’s techno-society as a whole. The first one is a “digital autoethnography” developed at the City University of Hong Kong; the second one refers to the course “Anthropology of Communication” – co-delivered at Politecnico of Milan – which adopted a “connected intelligence” approach to urge students to reflect on tomorrow’s techno-society in a collaborative way. While the first experience was chiefly a self-reflexive study on the impact of social media on the individual, the second one mapped the main criticalities of techno-society as a whole, according to seven macro-themes, and asked students to elaborate possible solutions. Both courses considered students as active learners/users, insofar as they at the forefront of today digital revolution, but also the subjects most in need of critical tools to face it.Oggi, nell’università, assistiamo a una congiuntura unica: da un lato, gli studenti che frequentano i corsi accademici sono la prima generazione ad essere completamente cresciuta in un mondo digitalizzato; dall’altro lato, i docenti, pur essendo cresciuti e aver studiato in un mondo ancora in gran parte analogico, hanno assistito all'evoluzione della tecno-società odierna sin dalla sua infanzia. Promuovendo un dialogo tra le Digital Humanities e la didattica (accademica), questo articolo discute la concezione, progettazione e i risultati di due esperienze di insegnamento practice-based mirate a esplorare le tensioni implicite nel nostro uso quotidiano delle tecnologie digitali, nonché nella tecno-società odierna nel suo insieme. La prima esperienza è una “autoetnografia digitale” sviluppata presso la City University di Hong Kong; la seconda è collegata al corso “Anthropology of Communication” – tenuto al Politecnico di Milano – nella quale abbiamo adottato l’approccio dell’“intelligenza connessa” per stimolare gli studenti a riflettere collaborativamente sulla tecno-società di domani. Mentre la prima esperienza è stata principalmente uno studio autoriflessivo sull'impatto dei social media sull’individuo, la seconda ha mappato le principali criticità della nostra tecno-società, a partire da sette macro-temi, al fine di elaborare possibili soluzioni. Entrambi i corsi considerano gli studenti come utenti attivi, giacché sono in prima linea nell’uso delle nuove tecnologie, ma sono anche coloro che necessitano maggiormente di un solido bagaglio critico per usarle/svilupparle al meglio

Intermediality, Multimodality and Medial Chronotopes: A Comparison between the Travel Book and the Travel Blog

Using Bakhtin's "chronotope", this paper advances a comparison between the travel book Il mondo oltre il fiume dei peschi in fiore by Sino-Italian Bamboo Hirst and the travel blog Emil's Trip to China, by American Emil Kang. Firstly, it is assumed that these texts are two "intermedial transpositions" of the same genre: travel writing. Secondly, it is argued that the process of transposition affects how the genre is realised insofar as the book and the blog, as medial formats, embed different chronotopes. It is in this respect that the notion of "genium", as a conceptual field of generic and medial negotiations, is introduced. Moreover, because both texts are multimodal, the paper discusses the extension of the chronotope to photography, starting from Barthes's Camera Lucida. This provides a chronotopic study of some pictures in the texts, in terms of both what is represented and its mode of representation.Usando el cronotopo creado por Mijaíl Bajtín, este artículo establece una comparación entre el libro de viajes Il mondo oltre il fiume dei peschi in fiore de la escritora chino-italiana Bamboo Hirst y el blog Emil�s Trip to China del americano Emil Kang. En primer lugar, se asume que los dos textos son �transposiciones intermediales� del mismo género, de la literatura de viajes. En segundo lugar, se demuestra que el proceso de transposición afecta a la manera en la que se forma el género, en la medida en la que el libro y el blog, como formatos mediales, incorporan diferentes cronotopos. Con dicho objetivo se introduce la noción de �genium�, concebido como un espacio conceptual de negociación entre medio y género. Además, como los dos textos analizados son multimodales, el artículo discute cómo el cronotopo se puede extender a la fotografía, basándose en el libro de Roland Barthes La cámara lúcida. Esto permite llevar a cabo un estudio cronotópico de algunas fotos en los textos, tanto en términos de lo que se presenta como de su modo de representación

Practicing Online Travel Writing. How My Blogging and Australia Met

Travelling and writing, then, come to be two very complementary practices of discovery: cross-cultural (of the Other, encountered on the road) and gnoseological (of the Self, who takes the road). As a consequence, once we accept that travel writing stems from the interplay between travelling and writing as practices, then the pragmatic strength of this literary genre is brought to light. This article presents an intertwinement between practice and theory by alternating passages (translated into English) from the blog with an analysis of these same passages

Travel Writing on the Edge: An Intermedial Approach to Travel Books and Travel Blogs

After discussing the limits and potentialities of the definitions of travel writing proposed by Paul Fussell (1980). Patrick Holland and Graham Huggan (1998) and Jan Borm (2004), the article presents a characterization of travel writing both as a genre with a precise rhetorical status, as well as a praxis of knoivledge, which derives from the interplay between travelling and writing. Building on this, a comparison between two Italian travel books and two Italian travel blogs about China is proposed. Specifically, by considering these texts as “intermedial transpositions” (Wolf 2008) that realize the same generic and epistemological matrix (i.e. travel writing), a Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA) is conducted in order to assess: 1) how the book and the blog, as different medial formats, interpret the rhetorical features of the travel writing genre: and 2) to what extent the gnoseological and cross-cultural potentials of travel writing, as a praxis of knowledge, is affected by the process of transposition

Intermediality, Multimodality and Medial Chronotopes: A Comparison between the Travel Book and the Travel Blog

Using Bakhtin’s “chronotope”, this paper advances a comparison between the travel book Il mondo oltre il fiume dei peschi in fiore by Sino-Italian Bamboo Hirst and the travel blog Emil’s Trip to China, by American Emil Kang. Firstly, it is assumed that these texts are two “intermedial transpositions” of the same genre: travel writing. Secondly, it is argued that the process of transposition affects how the genre is realised insofar as the book and the blog, as medial formats, embed different chronotopes. It is in this respect that the notion of “genium”, as a conceptual field of generic and medial negotiations, is introduced. Moreover, because both texts are multimodal, the paper discusses the extension of the chronotope to photography, starting from Barthes’s Camera Lucida. This provides a chronotopic study of some pictures in the texts, in terms of both what is represented and its mode of representation

Intermedialidad, multimodalidad y cronotopos mediales: una comparación entre el libro de viajes y el blog de viajes

[EN] Using Bakhtin’s “chronotope”, this paper advances a comparison between the travel book Il mondo oltre il fiume dei peschi in fiore by Sino-Italian Bamboo Hirst and the travel blog Emil’s Trip to China, by American Emil Kang. Firstly, it is assumed that these texts are two “intermedial transpositions” of the same genre: travel writing. Secondly, it is argued that the process of transposition affects how the genre is realised insofar as the book and the blog, as medial formats, embed different chronotopes. It is in this respect that the notion of “genium”, as a conceptual field of generic and medial negotiations, is introduced. Moreover, because both texts are multimodal, the paper discusses the extension of the chronotope to photography, starting from Barthes’s Camera Lucida. This provides a chronotopic study of some pictures in the texts, in terms of both what is represented and its mode of representation. [ES] Usando el cronotopo creado por Mijaíl Bajtín, este artículo establece una comparación entre el libro de viajes Il mondo oltre il fiume dei peschi in fiore de la escritora chino-italiana Bamboo Hirst y el blog Emil’s Trip to China del americano Emil Kang. En primer lugar, se asume que los dos textos son “transposiciones intermediales” del mismo género, de la literatura de viajes. En segundo lugar, se demuestra que el proceso de transposición afecta a la manera en la que se forma el género, en la medida en la que el libro y el blog, como formatos mediales, incorporan diferentes cronotopos. Con dicho objetivo se introduce la noción de “genium”, concebido como un espacio conceptual de negociación entre medio y género. Además, como los dos textos analizados son multimodales, el artículo discute cómo el cronotopo se puede extender a la fotografía, basándose en el libro de Roland Barthes La cámara lúcida. Esto permite llevar a cabo un estudio cronotópico de algunas fotos en los textos, tanto en términos de lo que se presenta como de su modo de representación