Transparency and Truth: Prefatory Material in Fictional and Non-Fictional Eighteenth-Century Travel Writing

Abstract

This paper focuses on the paratexts, more specifically the prefatory material, found in eighteenth-century travel accounts. We will argue that as the century progresses the prefaces change in terms of their complexity. This question of complexity is approached from three distinct perspectives. On a purely formal level, increasingly sophisticated textual and iconographical elements are incorporated into the introductory material. Greater interconnections between genre (fiction or non-fiction), stylistics and veracity or, to borrow Homi Bhabha’s terms, the focus on discursive transparency, also appear to gain ground. Finally, the paratextual material seems progressively to take a more multifarious approach to performatives. Using a corpus comprising fiction (Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver’s Travels) and non-fiction (Dampier, Woodes Rogers, Shelvocke, Anson, Byron, Wallis, Cook), this study suggests that this type of parallel analysis offers fresh insights into the function and development of prefaces and also suggests new interconnections between the two forms of travel writing.