Travelling and Transgressive Experiences: An Anthropological-cum-Ethnographical Study of Heinrich Harrer’s Seven Years in Tibet and Noo Saro Wiwa’s Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to analyze Heinrich Harrer’s Seven Years in Tibet (1953) and Noo-Saro-Wiwa’s Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria (2012) using interpretive frameworks of anthropology and ethnography. Harrer’s work is a travel book based on the author’s personal experiences in Tibet and his encounter with contemporary Tibetan culture, and Noo-Saro-Wiwa’s work is an account of her journey to Nigeria which is her father’s country. Using anthropology as an interpretive framework, the study seeks to contextualize the aforementioned narratives as transgressive practices. The study also emphasizes how people and events shape the writer's imagination.