Aufklärender Reisebericht versus aufgeklärter Reisender: Über die unterschiedliche Funktion von Bildern in Georg Forsters Reise um die Welt (1778−1780) und Karl Philipp Moritz’ Reisen eines Deutschen in England im Jahr 1782 (1783)

This article analyses the different ways in which visual material is used in travelogues through a comparative analysis of Georg Forster's Reise um die Welt (1778-80) and Karl Philipp Moritz's Reisen eines Deutschen in England im Jahr 1782 (1783). I examine the different functions of images and the respective relationship between image and text, as well as its role in the production and reception of travelogues in the 18th century. Forster's sketches of plants, as well as everyday objects, clothing, jewellery, etc., underline the expeditionary nature of his journey. At the same time, exoticism was promoted in this way and the public's interest in the ‘other’ was satisfied. The illustrations have an illustrative character and accompany the text. In Moritz's case, however, the cover of the first edition bears a copperplate engraving of the entrance to the Peak Cavern in the English Lake District, a visit to which was one of the highlights of his journey. The dark cave entrance, the rough, bare rock, the small figure of a traveller, which can only be vaguely discerned at the bottom right-hand edge of the picture – all this seems at best to be an illustration of the sublime, at any rate it stands in stark contrast to the usual associations of contemporary readers, who think primarily of urban London when they hear the keyword England. Moritz's travelogue is characterised by this pictorial ‘entrance’ to the text. He thus anticipates that his text, just like the picture, differs from earlier depictions of England: Indeed, Moritz's travelogue stands in a new tradition of travel texts that foreground the experience of the travelling subject and thus emphasise the individual aspect of the Enlightenment project of ‘travel’. Although Forster also announces such an observation in the preface to his report (the well-known ‘coloured glass’ through which he sees), his travelogue still very much corresponds to the conventional contemporary demands on the genre, which is expressed not least in the images used in it.