The generic identity of travel guides: Ethos, instruction and grammatical metaphor

Starting from a discussion of the fundamentals of genre theory applied to travel guides, the paper singles out three aspects typical of this genre, which represent different approaches to the analysis: the rhetorical (ethos), the pragmatic (instruction), and the textual (grammatical metaphor). Each of them is be discussed both in the diachronic and in the synchronic perspective, giving examples taken from different cultural and language traditions. The survey aims to show how deeply the generic integrity of travel guides has been construed and maintained during their relatively short existence as a genre, suggesting a possible interpretation for the line of evolution of their most distinctive traits.