Losers with Passports: Travel as a Mask for Emptiness in Literature and Late Modern Life
Abstract
This work examines the transformation of travel from a practice of encounter into a performative mechanism of social camouflage in late modern life. Drawing on literary observation and contemporary social practice, it argues that mobility increasingly functions as a mask for emptiness, enabling reputational evasion, eroticized visibility, and the simulation of success without substance. The study shows how travel, once associated with responsibility and friction, has been repurposed as spectacle, reinforcing social irrelevance rather than meaningful engagement.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Travel Writing and Literature
Contemporary Literature and Criticism
Spatial and Cultural Studies
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
- Publication date
- 16 January 2026
- Language
- EN
- Document type
- Preprint