The End of the Road? - The Status of the Aimless Journey in Literature and Film.

Abstract

This work aims at highlighting the theme of the aimless journey, as it appears in a selection of American travel narratives in literature and film between 1955 and 1975. Taking the theoretical approach of psychogeography and its treatment of space, geographical organization and the individual within its boundaries, these urban concepts will be extended towards the open road and modern mobility, in order to work out aspects of freedom, confinement and rebellion in a number of fictional works in which a journey is undertaken. This will, in the end, provide a better understanding of the protagonists' motivation to set out towards the horizon and, in turn, address the question of what awaits them at the end of the road.