A moving cause: travel notes towards pilgrimage as creative writing process

Pilgrimage Studies is a growing field across the arts and humanities, yet pilgrimage writing is not established as a distinct genre. In this article I share my exploration of pilgrimage as a creative writing process and potential genre. As a social scientist and a creative writer, my approach is qualitative and interdisciplinary, drawing upon an on-the-ground social constructivist perspective and definitions of genre as social action. This includes an ethnomethodological account of my practice that distils ten narrative and thematic elements in the pilgrimage writing process. These elements hinge on the leitmotif of pilgrimage writing being ‘a moving cause’, with each element creating or undergoing some form of change or transformation in its application. These elements are proposed and contextualised within debates on ethical practices, religious/secular divides, and intersections of gender, race, and economic status. This includes environmental concerns and issues around equal accessibility to pilgrimage trails and to pilgrimage writing as a form of language. Whether this process forms a step towards recognition as a genre will be up to fellow readers, writers, and pilgrims. Yet if socio-cultural and environmental issues are addressed, understanding pilgrimage writing as a genre may pave the way to shared empathic and ethical practices.