Codex<\/em> describes the pilgrimage in some detail and has been referred to as the earliest European travel guide.”<\/p>\nAssociate Professor Genoni says that over the past 25 years no other single journey has inspired such an extensive bibliography of popular travel writing.<\/p>\n
“There have been about 120 personal accounts published in English alone in this period,” he said.<\/p>\n
“A notable feature of contemporary Santiago narratives is their frequently expressed nostalgic and romantic attachment to an earlier time, closely coupled with a distrust of modernity.”<\/p>\n
An element of ‘time bending’ – where the pilgrim is transported to a past time that they imaginatively share with their medieval forebears – pervades many of the modern works.<\/p>\n
“What these various manifestations of the pilgrims’ experience of time have in common is that they are underpinned by a contention that the pilgrim encounters time in a way that is more fulfilling than is normal in modern, industrialised society, and in a manner that is personally healing,” Associate Professor Genoni said.<\/p>\n
Another important element of the modern pilgrim narratives was to make distinctions between ‘authentic’ pilgrims and ‘garden variety’ tourists.<\/p>\n
“The pilgrim-author’s claim to authenticity rests on the extent to which their pilgrimage resembles that of the medieval times,” Associate Professor Genoni said.<\/p>\n
“They often express contempt for others who adopt the comforts and conveniences of modernity for transport, accommodation or support.”<\/p>\n
The modern writings frequently regard ‘genuine’ pilgrims as having joined a community of past pilgrims with whom they have more in common than their contemporaries who are seen to revel in the ‘doubtful’ benefits of modernity.<\/p>\n
“It is easy to be sceptical about Santiago narratives and their claims to have undergone some sort of medieval experience,” Associate Professor Genoni said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith most pilgrims happy to carry mobile phones and credit cards and take advantage of modern light-weight clothing and footwear, the claim to having escaped modernity can seem spurious.<\/p>\n
“Indeed what might be said of these narratives is that they are absolutely of their own time, in their longing for a romantic age of pilgrimage, expressed as a desire to embrace an authentic past by imaginatively crossing time.”<\/p>\n
Associate Professor Genoni said that in their exaggerated concern with authenticity and community, the texts collectively provided a critique of both non-pilgrim tourism and the failed sociality offered by modernity.<\/p>\n
“In this way, and in common with the best travel writing, Santiago narratives offer a profound reflection, not only on the land, places and people encountered, but on the process of modern travel,” he said.<\/p>\n
Photography: Sam Proctor<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lessons from the millennium-old trek that spawned Europe’s first travel guide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4275,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"7001,4598,7732,7690,5818,7957","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-4773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":[{"title":"","qualification":"","link":"","description":"","faculty":""}],"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}},"post_components":false},"featured_image":false,"author_meta":{"first_name":"Curtin","last_name":"University","display_name":"Curtin University"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 04:24:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4275"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4773\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4773"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=4773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}