The discursive construction of Hunza, Pakistan, in travel writing: 1889--1999.

摘要

Travel writing has remained mainly untouched by careful textual analysis until recently. Following in the footsteps of academics, who have begun to focus on concerns of authority and representation in travel writing, this thesis examines travel texts, written by Westerners over the past one hundred years, about Hunza, an area in northern Pakistan. I employ a deconstructive method to examine how language has been used to give travel statements their naturalizing power. Using a variety of narrative and semantic techniques, the authors of the narratives have constructed several dominant representations of Hunza and its inhabitants, some of which have been developed into naturalized discourses of Hunza. In texts that range from eyewitness reports to narratives of self-discovery, the authors have constructed an inferior 'other' in opposition to a superior Westerner. By following the emergence and development of these discourses over a century, I describe how they were constructed, and how they became naturalized over time.