Walking as Art: The Non-Fiction Literature of Irish Walkers

• Název práce v češtině: Umění chůze: Literatura faktu irských pěších cestovatelů
• Název v anglickém jazyce: Walking as Art: The Non-Fiction Literature of Irish Walkers
• Klíčová slova: chůze|irská literatura|literatura faktu|cestovaní|pěší turistika
• Klíčová slova anglicky: walking|Irish literature|non-fiction|travelling|hiking
• Akademický rok vypsání: 2022/2023
• Typ práce: diplomová práce
• Jazyk práce: angličtina
• Ústav: Ústav anglofonních literatur a kultur (21-UALK)
• Vedoucí / školitel: Mgr. Radvan Markus, Ph.D.
• Řešitel: skrytý - zadáno a potvrzeno stud. odd.
• Datum přihlášení: 16.08.2023
• Datum zadání: 17.08.2023
• Schválení administrátorem: bylo schváleno
• Datum potvrzení stud. oddělením: 17.08.2023
• Odevzdaná/finalizovaná: ne

Zásady pro vypracování

Walking literature is a specific subgenre of travel literature that allows the author to describe and comprehend their surrounding nature in a more detailed way than by taking modern means of transportation. The literature also has an inherent autobiographical feature since the authors describe specific periods of their lives – the time spent on adventurous travelling on foot. There have been several studies contemplating the individual authors and their works, but none aims at the more general topic of “walking art” in Irish literature. This MA thesis will explore modern non-fiction works of Irish authors who based their writings on their walking journeys. The main objective of this thesis will be the act of walking itself. Special attention will be paid to the perception of walkers’ surroundings – how the journeys affected them on physical and mental levels, and, if applicable, how society perceives their journeys and them as walkers. Because the examined authors embarked on their walks mostly alone, or at least did not have a permanent companion, the solitary nature of such journey allowed them even deeper examination of the environment they walked through.
In the introduction, the thesis will provide a general overview of walking literature in Europe and North America to provide a wider context for my research. The main body of the thesis will examine a group of twentieth and twenty-first-century Irish authors in whose work walking is a crucial element that significantly influences the perception of their surroundings. Since only a marginal number of travelogues are based on genuine walking, the volume of relevant books is not that extensive. Based on the available material, I have decided to group the texts in three (tentative and necessarily overlapping) categories.
In the first category, the authors wrote their books based on their professional, survey-like interests (cartography, botany, etc.). One example is Tim Robinson, who walked and mapped the Aran islands, Connemara, and Burren and, simultaneously, collected so-called “dindsenchas,” or the lore of places (local stories, legends, and more behind the placenames). Another author, Robert Lloyd Praeger, had walked the same regions (as well as some others) before him in order to survey local botanical life, but on his solitary journey through the Irish countryside he encountered many more interesting details about the landscape and people and recorded it in his account – The Way That I Went.
The second examined aspect will be gender and the distinction between the approach to solitary walking on the part of male and female authors. When discussing the latter, I will pay special attention to the sense of danger during their walks, how they were perceived by the passers-by, and whether they differed from male authors in how they chose and proceeded with their respective journeys. From female authors, I would like to point out two who have travelled both Ireland and foreign countries – Rosita Boland, who made an account of her journey through all Ireland’s counties as well as remote places abroad (Amazonia, Australia, and others), and also Dervla Murphy, who undertook several journeys with her young daughter as well. Although most of Murphy’s books are about travelling on a bicycle, she has several accounts of walking the land and experienced life-threatening and violent situations (such as those listed In Ethiopia with a Mule).
The final examined aspect will zoom on authors who decided to undergo a pilgrimage from one place to another to prove themselves something – on psychological, spiritual, or social level. This category can be well discussed on Seosamh Mac Grianna’s fictionalized autobiography Mo Bhealach Féin (This Road of Mine), which includes a description of the author’s long, intensive, and solitary journey through Wales with practically no tourist equipment. The journey was partly undertaken to examine the state of Welsh culture, but mainly to escape the pressures of mental illness that the author was experiencing.
These three stated areas have many intersections and common grounds, which will be apprehended accordingly in the thesis (e.g., the harsh walking conditions may apply to every author since difficult situations are inseparably connected to such journeys, etc.).
Many of the indicated primary and secondary sources (below) are practically unavailable in the Czech Republic, both for purchase and online reading. I intend to advance the development of the topic on my semestral Erasmus stay in Galway, where most of the sources and more are available even in print in the local library. I will also consult local experts on this issue (e.g., Dr Nessa Cronin, University of Galway).
The primary goal of the thesis is to point out the most salient features of Irish non-fiction works written on the basis of the authors’ travels on foot. The secondary aim is to draw more attention to the authors, to make their thoughts more available, and perhaps to inspire others in making accounts of their own journeys.

Seznam odborné literatury

Primary sources:
Boland, Rosita. A Secret Map of Ireland. Boston: Gemmamedia, 2010.
—. Elsewhere: One Woman, One Rucksack, One Lifetime of Travel. London: Penguin Random House, 2019.
—. Sea Legs: Hitch-Hiking the Coast of Ireland Alone. Dublin: New Island Books, 1992.
Feehan, John M. The Book of Aran: The Aran Islands, Co. Galway. Kinvara, Co. Galway: Tir Eolas, 1994.
—. Clare Island. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 2019.
—. The Secret Places of the West Cork Coast. Cork: Royal Carberry Books, 1990.
Mac Grianna, Seosamh. Mo Bhealach Féin. Dublin: An Gúm, 2004.
—. This Road of Mine. Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 2020.
Magan, Manchán. Manchán’s Travels: A Journey Through India. Dingle, Co. Kerry: Mount Eagle Publications, 2007.
Murphy, Dervla. In Ethiopia with a Mule. London: Eland Publishing Limited, 2012.
O’Brien, Kate. My Ireland. London: B. T. Batsford, 1962.
Ó Conaire, Padraic. Field and Fair. Cork: Mercier Press, 1966.
Praeger, Robert Lloyd. The Way That I Went. Cork: Collins Press, 2014.
Robinson, Tim. Stones of Aran: Labyrinth. London: Penguin Books, 1997.
—. Stones of Aran: Pilgrimage. London: Penguin Books, 1990.
—. Connemara: A Little Gaelic Kingdom. Dublin: Penguin Ireland, 2011.
—. Connemara: The Last Pool of Darkness. London: Penguin Books, 2009.
—. Setting Foot on Connemara & Other Writings. Dublin: Lilliput Press, 2012.
—. My Time in Space. Dublin: Lilliput Press, 2001.
Synge, John Millington. Aran Islands. London: Penguin Books, 1992.

Secondary sources:
Kelly, A. A. Wandering Women: Two Centuries of Travel out of Ireland. Dublin: Wolfhound Press, 1995.
O’Mahony, John, and Robert Lloyd Praeger. The Sunny Side of Ireland.
O’Mara, Shane, In Praise of Walking: A New Scientific Exploration. (New York, W. W. Norton & Company Inc., 2019).
Shepherd, Anna “Nan.” The Living Mountain.
Smith, Jos. “Anticipating Deep Mapping: Tracing the Spatial Practice of Tim Robinson,” Humanities 4 (2015): 283–303, https://doi.org/10.3390/h4030283.
Solnit, Rebecca. Wanderlust: A History of Walking. New York: Viking, 2000.
Thoreau, Henry David. “Walking,” The Atlantic (June 1862), https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1862/06/walking/304674/.
Wall, Eamonn. “Walking: Tim Robinson’s Stones of Aran.” New Hibernia Review / Iris Éireannach Nua 12, No. 3 (Autumn 2008): 66-79, https://www.jstor.org/stable/25660804.