The Traveler and His Diary: Couto de Magalhães and Roger Casement

Abstract

The aim of this article is to reflect upon the process of construction
of the travel narrative as a counterpoint to the traveler’s experience. It
focuses the travels of two public figures, General Couto de Magalhães and
the Irish nationalist Roger Casement. Their intimate diaries written during
their travels are analysed from a critical perspective that considers the
tensions between the actual travel experience and its subsequent published
account. The issues addressed along this text are genre, sexuality, narrative
construction and travel literature.