The North African Desert in American Travel Writing

Abstract

This essay deals with the construction of the desert in American travel discourse since the early eighteenth century. While early American accounts of the desert were the result of unfortunate incidents of shipwreck along the southern shores of Morocco beyond Oued Noun, and reflected the experiences of bondage and salvation, later accounts framed the Sahara across North Africa in subtler and more poetic terms. The Sahara has evolved in these numerous narratives as a space of romance, intrigue and spirituality as well as locale of unspeakable violence and horror. Despite the changing circumstances and the advent of European colonialism and modern capitalism, the Sahara remains an untamed wilderness shielded by the vastness of its land and extreme aridity of the climate. Since mid-twentieth century, North African desert has become a tourist attraction and a place of pilgrimage for writers seeking inspiration and creative material.