”You have your backpack and it is your life” : Immersion, distress and transformation in travel narratives
Linko, Camilla (2019)
Linko, Camilla
Åbo Akademi
2019
Julkaisu on tekijänoikeussäännösten alainen. Teosta voi lukea ja tulostaa henkilökohtaista käyttöä varten. Käyttö kaupallisiin tarkoituksiin on kielletty.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2019050314225
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2019050314225
Tiivistelmä
This is a thesis in Nordic folkloristics about travel narratives. By analyzing stories and reports in conversations, I aim to understand how young adult backpackers have experienced their time as travelers, and how they make meaning of their experiences.
Meaning-making is a central human activity which is given in a cultural context. I use meaning-making as a method to understand how travel experience is translated into a narrative. The material consists of seven thematic interviews on the experiences of my informant’s lengthy travels. The theoretical framework on narrative as text, on stories and reports supports the meaning-making process from the experience to the interpretation. The planning and packing is viewed as initiations to a rite of passage, which is being characterized as the betweenness of two states, or as a transitional state in itself.
The analytical concepts I createted to understand the interplay of learning and enjoying are immersion, distress and transformation. These concepts are further divided into immersive places and circumstances, situations on a pinch, environmental and digital distress. Last, there are narratives on self-development, fluidity and transitions.
The analytical concepts support an understanding of traveling as a transitional time and space of freedom, where the traveler is someone who is immersed in spontaneous communitas, in a romantic-adventurous quest for paradise and immediate confrontation of human identities. The traveler can face trouble, dilemmas and expectations. The impact of the physical and virtual environment can be a source of distress one prefers to withdraw from. Finally, there are elements of transformation such as self-development, fluidity and transitions in the narratives presented. The analysis consists of contradictions such as planning versus spontaneity, freedom from and freedom to, resistance to omnipresence.
The result of the thesis is that the narratives about experiences related to immersion, distress and transformation create transitions between different life situations. Long-term travel is a liminal space when one is detached from an uncertain future. Traveling can furthermore be seen as personal freedom from institutional obligations, a critique towards sedentarism and a rite of passage. Detta är en avhandling i nordisk folkloristik om reseberättelser. Fokus i avhandlingen vilar på unga vuxnas växande intresse för att göra långvariga resor med ett meningsfullt syfte. Ungdomsresande har under senaste åren varit en växande trend inom turism, som har betydande ekonomiska följder för turismen idag.
Syftet med avhandlingen är att besvara på frågan vad de unga vuxna upplevt, och hur de skapar mening utifrån sina upplevelser på resande fot. Genom avhandlingen vill jag studera hur den resandes personliga erfarenhetsberättelser reflekterar en rörlig, flyktig tid, och anknyter denna till en större helhetsbild genom omslutning, svårigheter och personlig omvandling. Jag använder mig av berättelseteori och teori om liminalitet, liminoiditet samt övergångsriter för att förstå hur upplevelserna konstrueras till berättelser som reflekterar omslutning, svårigheter samt omvandling. Avhandlingen är skriven på engelska för att tillgängliggöra resultaten till en bred publik.
Meaning-making is a central human activity which is given in a cultural context. I use meaning-making as a method to understand how travel experience is translated into a narrative. The material consists of seven thematic interviews on the experiences of my informant’s lengthy travels. The theoretical framework on narrative as text, on stories and reports supports the meaning-making process from the experience to the interpretation. The planning and packing is viewed as initiations to a rite of passage, which is being characterized as the betweenness of two states, or as a transitional state in itself.
The analytical concepts I createted to understand the interplay of learning and enjoying are immersion, distress and transformation. These concepts are further divided into immersive places and circumstances, situations on a pinch, environmental and digital distress. Last, there are narratives on self-development, fluidity and transitions.
The analytical concepts support an understanding of traveling as a transitional time and space of freedom, where the traveler is someone who is immersed in spontaneous communitas, in a romantic-adventurous quest for paradise and immediate confrontation of human identities. The traveler can face trouble, dilemmas and expectations. The impact of the physical and virtual environment can be a source of distress one prefers to withdraw from. Finally, there are elements of transformation such as self-development, fluidity and transitions in the narratives presented. The analysis consists of contradictions such as planning versus spontaneity, freedom from and freedom to, resistance to omnipresence.
The result of the thesis is that the narratives about experiences related to immersion, distress and transformation create transitions between different life situations. Long-term travel is a liminal space when one is detached from an uncertain future. Traveling can furthermore be seen as personal freedom from institutional obligations, a critique towards sedentarism and a rite of passage.
Syftet med avhandlingen är att besvara på frågan vad de unga vuxna upplevt, och hur de skapar mening utifrån sina upplevelser på resande fot. Genom avhandlingen vill jag studera hur den resandes personliga erfarenhetsberättelser reflekterar en rörlig, flyktig tid, och anknyter denna till en större helhetsbild genom omslutning, svårigheter och personlig omvandling. Jag använder mig av berättelseteori och teori om liminalitet, liminoiditet samt övergångsriter för att förstå hur upplevelserna konstrueras till berättelser som reflekterar omslutning, svårigheter samt omvandling. Avhandlingen är skriven på engelska för att tillgängliggöra resultaten till en bred publik.