{607}Trust me - it's paradise" The escapist motif in Into the Wild, The Beach and Are You Experienced? : the Escapist motif in Into the Wild, The Beach and Are You Experienced?

The author analyzes three books on escapism and the various ways in which it is represented in them. He focuses on Alex Garland's backpacker cult novel 'The Beach' and William Sutcliffe's satire of the gap-year traveler 'Are You Experienced?' as well as Jon Krakauer's non-fiction book 'Into the Wild'.The first part of the analysis deals with the influence of literary genres like the Bildungsroman and travel literature. Unreliable narration as a narrative strategy is taken into consideration, as well as the colonial subtext of 'The Beach' and 'Are You Experienced?'. In 'Into the Wild' nature writing and road narratives are an integral part of the narrative.The second part deals with cultural aspects such as questions of authenticity that are raised during the narratives, the role of drugs as a means of escape, and also the problematic relationship between travelers and tourists. Finally, the author compares two film adaptations, Danny Boyle's 'The Beach' (2000) and Sean Penn's 'Into the Wild' (2007), with their corresponding literary source texts. Auszug aus dem Text Text Sample: Chapter 1.2.1, Are You Experienced? - India: According to Roldan-Santiago, the main objective of travel writing has always been '...the faithful portrayal of the 'other', that is, the third world [or] marginal groups like ethnic and racial minorities...' These portrayals, however, were in part also always fictional, particularly because Western travel writings are generally 'geared to notions of colonial narratives' and therefore misrepresent or distort the places they narrate about. In this context, Dissayanake and Wickramagamage have utilized the term of the 'colonial gaze', that is, a decidedly condescending manner in which travel writers observed far away countries and their inhabitants. This patronizing attitude, which deems a society as inferior and 'backwards' in.. The author analyzes three books on escapism and the various ways in which it is represented in them. He focuses on Alex Garland’s backpacker cult novel 'The Beach' and William Sutcliffe’s satire of the gap-year traveler 'Are You Experienced?' as well as Jon Krakauer’s non-fiction book 'Into the Wild'.The first part of the analysis deals with the influence of literary genres like the Bildungsroman and travel literature. Unreliable narration as a narrative strategy is taken into consideration, as well as the colonial subtext of 'The Beach' and 'Are You Experienced?'. In 'Into the Wild' nature writing and road narratives are an integral part of the narrative.The second part deals with cultural aspects such as questions of authenticity that are raised during the narratives, the role of drugs as a means of escape, and also the problematic relationship between travelers and tourists. Finally, the author compares two film adaptations, Danny Boyle’s 'The Beach' (2000) and Sean Penn’s 'Into the Wild' (2007), with their corresponding literary source texts. „Trust me – it’s paradise“ 1 Table of Contents 4 Introduction 7 1. Literary aspects 9 1.1 Influences of the Bildungsroman 9 1.2 Influences of travel literature 17 1.3 Unreliable Narration 37 2. Cultural Aspects 49 2.1 Escape through travel 49 2.2 Escape into drugs 59 2.3 Danny Boyle’s The Beach (2000) 63 2.4 Sean Penn’s Into The Wild (2007) 71 Conclusion 80 Bibliography 83 Primary Sources 83 Secondary Sources 83 Escapism;,Bildungsroman;,Backpacker;,Into,The,Wild;,Travel Escapism,Bildungsroman,Backpacker,Into The Wild,Travel The author analyzes three books on escapism and the various ways in which it is represented in them. He focuses on Alex Garland's backpacker cult novel 'The Beach' and William Sutcliffe's satire of the gap-year traveler 'Are You Experienced?' as well as Jon Krakauer's non-fiction book 'Into the Wild'. The first part of the analysis deals with the influence of literary genres like the Bildungsroman and travel literature. Unreliable narration as a narrative strategy is taken into consideration, as well as the colonial subtext of 'The Beach' and 'Are You Experienced?'. In 'Into the Wild' nature wr