Wanderers

Morris introduces wandering as it appears across a wide range of cultural material, from pop music to philosophical writing. The book offers both an informal history of the theme and a way of understanding the new kinds of wanderers emerging in the present day.

His central claim is that wandering is a basic and persistent part of human life, and that grasping it is essential to reading certain literary works. Along the way he moves between Paradise Lost, Wordsworth, the blues, the legend of the Wandering Jew, and the film Nomadland, showing how depictions of wandering have shifted across cultures, eras, and genres.

The book treats wandering both as an enduring human condition and as a historically changing phenomenon. It considers modern forms such as homelessness and climate migration, which raise pressing questions for readers today.

Written for students and researchers of literature, cultural studies, and philosophy, it serves as an accessible starting point for a theme that recurs throughout literary history.