Journal of Letters
Publication Date
2008-01-01
Abstract
This research paper examines the travel writing of the 20th Century British novelist, Graham Greene. The main works to be discussed are Journey Without Maps [1936], The Lawless Roads [1939] and In Search of a Character [1961] which deal with his journeys to Liberia, Mexico and the Congo and West Africa respectively. In addition, reference will be made to his two volumes of autobiography, A Sort of Life [1971] and Ways of Escape [1980] and his Collected Essays [1969], which contain accounts of his visits to South East Asia, Kenya, Eastern Europe, Central America and the Caribbean. The main purpose of this investigation is to assess the attraction of Africa, the Americas and Asia to Greene and to demonstrate how his travels both as a journalist and independent researcher were very much the result and confirmation of his bleak view of the world; a view which had been formed in childhood and was intensified by his adoption of the Catholic Faith and his increasing disillusionment with the nature of mankind and, ultimately, God. In addition, this paper will attempt to show how Graham Greene uses his experiences as the basis of his fiction and how his thematic concerns both spring from and are illustrated by events and people he encountered on his journeys.
DOI
10.58837/CHULA.JLETTERS.36.0.4
First Page
90
Last Page
111
Recommended Citation
Wright, Simon JP
(2008)
"In Search of Lost Worlds: the Travels of Graham Greene,"
Journal of Letters: Vol. 36:
Iss.
0, Article 4.
DOI: 10.58837/CHULA.JLETTERS.36.0.4
Available at:
https://digital.car.chula.ac.th/jletters/vol36/iss0/4