People watching: the static “I” and mobile travellees

ABSTRACT

Whenever the forward movement of the narrative slows down – or stops completely – travel writing often realigns its representation of other people. Instead of a mobile protagonist who notes the existence of largely static and featureless by-standers with no history to speak of, the polarities are reversed, so that it is the travellees who are the ones who move, passing by – or revolving around – a traveller who stays put with apparently little choice but to engage with them at length or in depth, if only on the page. This article examines different ways “people watching” figures in non-fiction writings in which the “I” barely moves and the impact this has on the forms of characterisation they use and the relative importance assigned to the observer and observed. Examples are drawn from texts by Alain de Botton, Roger Green, Sophie Calle, Annie Ernaux and Behrouz Boochani.

KEYWORDS:

• Vertical travel
• characterisation
• naming
• travellee
• immobility

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).