Bruce Chatwin, In Patagonia

Richard Utz (Georgia Institute of Technology)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Kerry Myler (Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1977

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Autobiography (literary)
- Guidebooks / Travel writing
Novel

Resources

In Patagonia, published in 1978, is an “autobiografictional” travelogue which both records and imagines the fulfilment of one of Bruce Chatwin's childhood fascinations, namely to retrace the travel adventures of his grandmother's uncle, Charley Milward, seadog, entrepreneur, and globetrotting family legend, who had died in Punta Arenas, Chile. Chatwin constructs the frame of his text around a playful variation of the literary quest motif. As a boy, his narrator persona sees a piece of animal skin with coarse, reddish hair in his grandmother's curio cabinet which had been sent to her by Charles Milward and which he believes to belong to a brontosaurus. Years later, when the occasion presents itself, the narrator sets out to …

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650 words

Citation: Utz, Richard. "In Patagonia". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 March 2001 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4475, accessed 26 November 2024.]

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