Never going back: Categories and Confusion on an Ornithological Trip to the Faroe Islands in 1828

The dichotomy center vs. periphery functions as metaphor and framework in many studies of travel writing (meaning for instance a relationship between the powerful and the powerless). However, cultural similarities between the center and the periphery can destabilize the dichotomy. Leaving e.g. the northern parts of Germany for the Faroe Islands in the first half of the 19th century was leaving a center in the North in order to visit some periphery islands further to the north, discovering a different geography, a more hostile climate and a different – perhaps rare – wildlife. On the other hand, compared to the center the inhabitants and their culture typically revealed only superficial differences (brought about by geographical circumstances), making it difficult to represent them within the conventions of much of European travel writing at the time and reducing the dichotomy of center-periphery to more practical questions of modernity and modernization.