Inside the Secret: North Korean representations in José Luís Peixoto's travel narrative

Abstract

Dentro do Segredo - Uma viagem na Coreia do Norte (Inside the secret – A journey in North Korea) represents José Luís Peixoto's debut in travel literature, through an incursion into North Korea, the most closed country in the world. Blending the classic travel narrative with a deep inner introspection, as well as reflections on the political, social and historical reality of the territory, the author presents a subjective vision of the country, where reality and simulacrum intersect and the truth remains only an illusion. The reader is thus faced with a paradox: what kind of tourism is possible in a strongly controlled space and where the freedom of the traveller is curtailed? We thus propose to reflect on the conditions of the writing of the journey in this narrative by José Luís Peixoto, keeping in mind both the possibility of literary tourism, nurtured by the introspective writing, and the tension between perceived reality and simulated reality.