Author Description

Through a study of Western authors and their representations of themselves and their Japanese experiences, I argue for a mutually complementary relationship between the philosophies Existentialism and Phenomenology, and travel, and attempt to codify features of a hypothetical 'Existential traveller-hero'. I will study a collection of Western writers who have travelled to and written about Japan, and try to analyse how their 'travel strategies' resemble an arguably Existential and/or Phenomenological paradigm. I do this through looking at philosophical and technical strategies within travel writing, as demonstrated by the lives and writings of authors such as Donald Richie - whose approach to cultural understanding clearly privileges engagement with the locals over construction of theoretical models - and French existentialist philosopher and pioneer Jean-Paul Sartre. It is specifically through Richie's writings that I attempt to illustrate the qualities of an 'Existential traveller-hero', as well as the 'perfect soul' described by the mystic philosopher-monk from Saxony, Hugh of St Victor.