Program
Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies
College
Arts and Sciences
Student Level
Master's
Location
PAÍS Building
Start Date
10-11-2022 11:00 AM
End Date
10-11-2022 1:00 PM
Abstract
Today, the most visible and popular form of travel "literature" is the "travel-vlog", an amorphous category which can pertain to any first-person, audio-visual exploration of place. YouTube is awash in travelers from every conceivable place documenting their adventures in every conceivable destination, and their content is disseminated instantaneously and simultaneously through the ever present yet intangible and amorphous conduit of the internet. My thesis consists of a three-fold investigation into the nature of this genre, the first two branches of which are genealogical and diagnostic, the third of which is speculative and potentially transformative. Having established a historical and technological framework, along with the polemical conclusions which result from this, I will pivot to an analysis which takes into account a potentially oppositional reading of this genre resulting from an unstable polyphonic spectatorship which emanates from a refracted multiplicity of gazes transmitted to/from the primary spectator (the traveler/creator) and the secondary spectators (the viewers/consumers) and further complicated by the reversed gaze of the ethnographic/anthropological subject, destabilizing the boundaries between these categories.
Polyphonic Spectatorship, Creative Cartography, & Post-Cinematic Refractions in the Age of Neo-Liberal Travel
PAÍS Building
Today, the most visible and popular form of travel "literature" is the "travel-vlog", an amorphous category which can pertain to any first-person, audio-visual exploration of place. YouTube is awash in travelers from every conceivable place documenting their adventures in every conceivable destination, and their content is disseminated instantaneously and simultaneously through the ever present yet intangible and amorphous conduit of the internet. My thesis consists of a three-fold investigation into the nature of this genre, the first two branches of which are genealogical and diagnostic, the third of which is speculative and potentially transformative. Having established a historical and technological framework, along with the polemical conclusions which result from this, I will pivot to an analysis which takes into account a potentially oppositional reading of this genre resulting from an unstable polyphonic spectatorship which emanates from a refracted multiplicity of gazes transmitted to/from the primary spectator (the traveler/creator) and the secondary spectators (the viewers/consumers) and further complicated by the reversed gaze of the ethnographic/anthropological subject, destabilizing the boundaries between these categories.
