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Abstract:
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The travel narrative is , ostensibly , little more than representation of foreign places and things , foreign objects . The language of the travel narrative seems , on the surface , to succeed in representing the foreign . None the less , theory abounds which holds that language is fundamentally unable to represent objects , at least in a pure sense . Taking Japanese travel narratives as a particular example , this thesis attempts to demonstrate that the language of these narratives fails to successfully and fully represent objects as they exist , or have existed , in the world . I work between what I take as two extreme theories of language , that of Jacques Derrida which holds meaning to be fundamentally unstable relative to language , which is , therefore , ultimately unable to represent objects , and that of Donald Davidson , which holds language to be the proof of an intersubjective world , such that linguistic reference must necessarily point back to objects in a shared world , and therefore has the fundamental capacity to represent these objects , at least to a certain degree . By analyzing the language of travel narratives relative to these theories and a number of others that fall in between these extreme points , I show that language , as it stands alone , fails to accurately reflect the world . Further , I show that the various contexts in which the travel narrative , along with its author , is situated fail to successfully assist the attempt at representation . |