Traveling Bodies: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Traveling as an Embodied Practice

Traveling Bodies: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Traveling as an Embodied Practice explores the central role the body has in and for traveling and thus complements and expands upon existing research in travel studies with new perspectives on and insights in the entanglement of bodies and traveling. The case studies assembled in this volume discuss a variety of traveling practices, experiences, and media with chapters featuring Asian, American, and European historical and contemporary perspectives. Truly interdisciplinary in its approach, the volume identifies and examines diverse literary, historical and cultural texts, contexts, and modes in which traveling and the body intersect, including ‘classic’ travelogues, (new) media (e.g., film, digital travel apps), surf culture, and travel-inspired tattoos. The contributions offer various avenues for further research, not only for scholars working with body theory and travel (writing), but also for anyone interested in the intersections of literature, culture, media, and embodied practices of traveling.

Nicole Maruo-Schröder is Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Koblenz, Germany. Her research focuses on nineteenth-century American literature, material (food) culture, travel writing, intersectionality, and visual culture. Publications include co-edited collections on Literature and Consumption in Nineteenth-Century America (2014), Space, Place, and Narrative (2016), and Issues in Contemporary Young Adult Dystopian Fiction (2018) as well as a monograph on Spatial Concepts in Contemporary American Literature (2006). A current book project focuses on literature and consumption.

Sarah Schäfer-Althaus is Lecturer in Anglophone Literature and Culture at the University of Koblenz, Germany. Her research centers on women, gender, sexuality studies, and medical humanities. She is the author of The Gendered Body: Female Sanctity, Gender Hybridity and the Body in Women’s Hagiography (2016) and co-editor of Transient Bodies in Anglophone Literature and Culture (2020) and Medicine and Mobility in Nineteenth-Century British Literature, History, and Culture (2023).

Uta Schaffers is Professor of German Literature and Didactics at the University of Koblenz, Germany. Her main research areas include travel writing (various articles and the co-edited volume (Off) the Beaten Track? Normierungen und Kanonisierungen des Reisens; 2018) with special focus on Japan (Konstruktionen der Fremde. Erfahren, verschriftlicht und erlesen am Beispiel Japan; 2006) and the Swiss travel writer Annemarie Schwarzenbach (see the editions of Schwarzenbach’s works), traveling bodies, and East-Asia in literature, as well as economics and literature.