The "Grand Tour" of the Communist: Wilhelm Mach's Queer Travel Writing

• Published in: Auto/biography studies Vol. 38; no. 3; pp. 671 - 693
• Main Author: Kovacheva, Adriana
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 02.09.2023
• Subjects: Polish People's Republic; queer studies; state socialism; Travel writing
• ISSN: 0898-9575; 2151-7290
• DOI: 10.1080/08989575.2023.2286819

The articles addresses three problems referring to Wilhelm Mach's travelogues: first of all, the relation between the act of writing and the quest for the truth of the self; secondly, the pivotal role of intimate memory and experience in the understanding of transnational political movements and in the third place, the unique point of view of a queer person who dissent from the dominant stereotypes and epistemic habits. Mach answers to all those questions in a very specific and unique manner - he disrupts the structure of the narrative, giving way to different techniques of registration and notation. Thus he pushes his travel writing in the liminal area of creative non-fiction which is a fascinating reaction to the oppressive rules of realism posed to the artists by communist regime. Mach's travelogues about India and Bulgaria are discussed here in particular because they are an example of the writer's personal 'Grand Tour' although it is a 'Grand Tour' organized under the constrictions of a totalitarian regime and experienced by a Marxist. Those historical and philosophical circumstances determine the peculiar image of both India and Bulgaria created by Mach. Under the political correctness required by the Stalinist censorship Mach's texts are subversive and non-canonical.