Travels with my Father - Placing the self : an original novel accompanied by an extended essay that investigates the localization of identity through its relationship to memory and place.

Abstract

Travels with my Father is a memoir-travelogue that maps the author-narrator’s attempts at regaining a sense of place and re-affirming her identity after the death of her father and the sale of the family home. Using her own travels, her father’s travels, her mother’s move into a new home and the family history written by her father as a basic outline, the book engages with a complex network of personal and social issues. The dissertation component of the thesis examines Jennings’s attempt within Travels with my Father to regain a sense of self through analysing processes of place and possession attachment; through engaging with her ancestry on her father’s side; through travel both locally and abroad; and through critically examining the function of the written narrative that comprises the manuscript of the memoir-travelogue.