"Across the Lines" is a study of how language mediates experience across cultures with regard to travel. The study is partly based on the books of various travel writers with no grasp of a foreign tongue and their perceptions using interpreters and guides.

A radical new work aiming to redefine the relationship between travel and language, focusing on the pivotal bond of language and culture as mediated through translation.An important feature of the Twentieth century has been the enormous growth in travel and the increasing mobility of individuals and groups across societies. A largely neglected aspect of this development has been the relationship of the traveller to language. Across the Lines examines the ways in which language mediates experience across cultures. It assesses a range of travel narratives by writers such as Bruce Chatwin, Dervla Murphy, Eva Hoffman and Jonathan Raban, and uses a theoretical frame of reference taken from socio-lingusitics, literary theory and semiotics. The work looks at what happens to the narrative of travel when the traveller has no grasp of the language spoken and how the status of interpreters, and guidebooks impact on different kinds of travel.Written by one of the leading thinkers in his field, Across the Lines raises concerns, which will be of interest to students and critics of language, translation, travel writing, tourism, and anthropology.