Frank Perch

The travelogue is a dazzling genre: on the one hand committed to the facts, on the other hand heavily overlaid with narratives that range from odyssey to road movie. So do you always have these patterns in mind when you set off? And what constitutes a journey, exoticism, distance? Not necessarily. Many adventures begin very close to home, as in Frank Barsch’s travelogues.

One of these journeys becomes a novel when the Heidelberg author and literary scholar transposes Heinrich Heine’s famous Harz hike into the present day. Exactly 200 years ago, Heine revived the travel narrative with a mixture of descriptions, fantasies, nature writing and social satire. A form that still works well today.

Marcus Imbsweiler talks to Frank Barsch about traveling near and far using examples from his travelogues.

Dr. Frank Barsch publishes prose, poetry and radio plays. He is a lecturer in literary writing at the Heidelberg University of Education, among others.

In the series Local Monday