Women’s travel writing has created lasting effects on historical events from its unique point of view of the outside world within the minds and voices of people who have not often been heard or exposed. Travel writing is not a new aspect of literature, especially for women. It has been around for centuries and has taught in the ways of history a perspective of a tourist. A tourist carries a fresh mindset of a place or event which is not standard for them. Therefore, travel writing carries a distinct perspective of historical events. In the late nineteenth century, leading into the early twentieth century, though women were now finding their way into a more flexible world as styles changed along with ideas and characteristics of women, for example, the "Flapper" era, there was still an idea of prejudice in some forms of sexism for the lesser ideals of women in an occupation compared to men. With the early twentieth century women writers leading into a more modern era, a new generation is able to see the once long hidden voices and inspirations of women who were distinctly interested in this style and genre of writing, continuing into a new role in society for women altogether, which will especially involve sentiments even more concealed from ethnically diverse women. Exploring the evolution of travel writing from a woman’s perspective will not only express an uncommon and imperative viewpoint, especially in racial and gender related aspects concerning vastly different contexts between men and women and of women of color, but will also exhibit lasting impacts made by this genre throughout history.
Travel writing is known as a form of writing which teaches global history. This explains the history of not only the world, but of the...
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... of their great influences. What could be much different from a man’s interpretation of the same events? Women have lied under the surface in occupations such as writing, however, have helped build and create small changes in our world today. These women, such as Blair Niles, who was a founding member of The Society of Women Geographers, did not sit idly by waiting for change to occur. More of this genre of writing would include Rose Wilder Lane and her companion “Troub” or Helen Dore Boylston, as mentioned earlier in their trek across 1920’s Europe, Jan Morris, a travel writer who traveled the world in about fifty years of travel writing, and Elizabeth Cochrane, also known as Nellie Bly, who would become the first person to circumnavigate the globe in under Eighty Days, taking after the fictional character from Jules Verne’s novel, ‘Around the World in Eighty Days’.
Women have faced oppression in the literary community throughout history. Whether they are seen as hysterical or unreliable, women writers seem to be faulted no matter the topics of their literature. However, Anne Bradstreet and Margaret Fuller faced their critics head-on. Whether it was Bradstreet questioning her religion or Fuller discussing gender fluidity, these two women did not water down their opinions to please others. Through their writings, Bradstreet and Fuller made great strides for not just women writers, but all women.
Flapper by Joshua Zeitz is a book that many historians have found so thrilling that they find it difficult to put it away. This is because of the manner in which Joshua presents the themes touching story. He tells a telling the story and growth and development of the American woman. He explores the role of industrialization and the growth and development of urban centres. He uses a romantic story using Zelda and F. Scott. Besides, fashion, which many women strive to achieve, plays an essential role in making the work of Joshua a world class literature. American woman underwent a number of revolutionary stages to come to what is now referred to as modern women. Through the stories of Zelda and Scott, the reader is able to imagine the rough road that women in America have travelled to achieve their current status of modern woman.
Most diaries from women on the westward journey show that they struggled with upholding their roles as wives and mothers, but they did the best they could under the circumstances. Most of their responsibilities were similar to those they had at home. Cooking cleaning, doing laundry, entertaining children etc. was women’s work, but these obligations were much more difficult being in the middle of nowhere. Women also had extra duties, such as packing up the wagon, making sure their children were with them, and taking on their husband’s role when he fell sick. It was common for children to be left behind amongst all the chaos, fall out of the wagon, or become struck with a disease. Mothers could only watch helplessly and had to continue with the journey if their child died. The diaries of Narcissa Whitman, Amelia Stewart Knight, and Jane Gould Tortillott all contain entries that suggest they were struggling with their roles as women, but were trying to make the best of it.
Beryl Markham’s West with the Night is a collection of anecdotes surrounding her early life growing up as a white girl in British imperialist Africa, leading up to and through her flight across the Atlantic Ocean from East to West, which made her the first woman to do so successfully. Throughout this memoir, Markham exhibits an ache for discovery, travel, and challenge. She never stays in one place for very long and cannot bear the boredom of a stagnant lifestyle. One of the most iconic statements that Beryl Markham makes in West with the Night is: I have learned that if you must leave a place that you have lived in and loved and where all your yesteryears are buried deep, leave it any way except a slow way, leave it the fastest way you can. Never turn back and never believe that an hour you remember is a better hour because it is dead.
In many cases they are the storytellers. In historical letters from that era, women served as ambassadors and as the vehicles of cultural continuity. Gertrude Weil for example, a resident of Goldsboro North Carolina was a cultural reformer and social activist for both the civil rights movement and the women’s suffrage movement. (Lecture. 11.2.15) Along with women who participated in Wednesdays in Mississippi, and women who participated in Hadassah chapters across the country. Eli Evan’s mother was another such woman, as she relates many of her stories in The
Amelia Earhart impacted numerous lives of males and females around the world. As an active aviator, Earhart sculpted the thoughts men had on women’s rights. Although it is vindicated that her assertion for being revolutionary is because of her attempted flight around the equator, Earhart, truly is memorized for the well beings of women and their rights. The perspectives of men and women in Earhart’s generation differ by manifold opinions. Her actions would later impact the prospect of Women’s rights. Amelia Earhart helped women support and stand up for their rights.
In the New York Times Bestseller Tales of a Female Nomad, Rita Golden Gelman describes her international travels with the exuberance of a child. In this deeply engaging travelogue Gelman crosses generations, cultures and continents to take readers on a journey they will never forget.
The book is set out in chronological order, starting with the first American women in the indian civilizations and going until the new century. It goes in depth on how women influenced major social changes that occurred in the history of America. It offers a section in the back with further reading including ...
For centuries, women have acted as men’s hypothetical stepping stones. Their work has been pushed to the back and overlooked; even if they were the ones to accomplish immense breakthroughs or life-altering discoveries. In “Pocahontas to Her English Husband, John Rolfe.”, Paula Gunn Allen argues that this is exactly what happened to Pocahontas. Not only did she helped the settlers by introducing them to the land and showing them how to grow tobacco, she also saved John Smith and his crew's lives. In spite of these things, Pocahontas gets overlooked throughout history. Allen shows how this happened through her poem. Her argument claiming Pocahontas was indubitably overlooked in history is strong considering it lines up with other accounts,
...iance, readers are capable of seeing how citizens in the world today try to be independent of others and sustain their personal beliefs and philosophy. Individuals have to put an end to conformity and trying to be a duplication of everyone else because they will never achieve success if they never decide for themselves. A person must not rely on the judgment and minds of others and learn to think for him or herself since depending on others only exhibits a person’s inferiority to larger institutions. People must stop using travel as an excuse to evade personal problems because if they do not have a direct confrontation with the dilemma, trying to escape will only lengthen it. People in today’s society must appreciate this work so they will approve of their individuality and be stronger in fighting against everyone else that disagrees with their personal philosophy.
In conclusion, the woman of the Victorian Era had her role in life planned out from before she was born. Although it was a dreadful role these women carried it out in a way that shows their purity of the heart and willingness to do so many of things for others and for little return. They were truly a remarkable testament to hard work and ingenuity of the time that even the men of the time could have learned from.
A woman's world may be disconnected from the realities of the actual world, but it acts as a safety blanket to secure sanity for not only herself, but also for a man to avoid losing hope. When Marlow, a sailor who sets off to the Congo for exploration, speaks to his aunt before his departure, he sees how women's worlds are “too beautiful altogether, and if they were to set it up it would go to pieces before the first sunset” (77). The world of a woman is set up so that she can bloc...
These women authors have served as an eye-opener for the readers, both men and women alike, in the past, and hopefully still in the present. (There are still cultures in the world today, where women are treated as unfairly as women were treated in the prior centuries). These women authors have impacted a male dominated society into reflecting on of the unfairness imposed upon women. Through their writings, each of these women authors who existed during that masochistic Victorian era, risked criticism and retribution. Each author ignored convention a...
Women have a different way of viewing the world, because of the culture not the nature. They tend to write diaries, autobiographies, poetry…because the cultural context in which they write asks for that kind of literature .
Pratt, Mary Louise. “Narrating the anti-conquest”. Imperial Eyes. Travel Writing and Transculturation. London and New York: Routledge. p.38 – p.68.