Malika Begum’s Mehfil: The Lost Legacy of Women’s Travel Writing in Urdu

This paper intends to track the development of traditional feminist ideas through the analysis of three contemporary travel blogs. These traditional feminist concepts are to be seen in the construction of a collective female identity that enables transnational and transgenerational solidarity: by receiving and transmitting inspiration, shelter and encouragement among female travellers, the narrators in the blogs create a system of female authority. Within this system, female role models as well as maternal figures become points of reference that help to revalue female attributes. This concept shows allusions to the theory of difference feminism as it is presented in the «symbolic order of the mother» by Luisa Muraro. A similar approach of revaluating femininity happens through the orientation towards ‘Mother Nature’. By staging women’s ability to give birth, cultural ecofeminists like Susan Griffin intend to affirm a close bond between women and nature. This representation of an emphasised femininity becomes a central marker in the narratives of the blogs. While this agenda might be designed to counter gendered spaces and the traditional alienation of women within travel discourse, it is problematised by exclusionary and essentialist definitions of femininity that harden engendered binaries like masculinity/femininity or nature/culture.

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Generic Shifts in Women’s Travel Writing between Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Bengal

Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities ◽

10.21659/rupkatha.v12n3.02 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (3) ◽

Author(s):

Shrutakirti Dutta ◽

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Travel Writing ◽

Early Twentieth Century ◽

Late Nineteenth ◽

Women's Travel

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An Anthology of Women's Travel Writing

Women s Writing ◽

10.1080/09699080500200447 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 12 (2) ◽

pp. 311-336

Author(s):

Emma Liggins

Keyword(s):

Travel Writing ◽

Women's Travel

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Women’s Travel Writing, 1750–1830

The History of British Women’s Writing, 1750–1830 ◽

10.1057/9780230297012_3 ◽

2010 ◽

pp. 47-60 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Katherine Turner

Keyword(s):

Travel Writing ◽

Women's Travel

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Introduction

10.1093/oso/9780198871439.003.0001 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-52

Author(s):

Tomoe Kumojima

Keyword(s):

British Empire ◽

Travel Writing ◽

Victorian Literature ◽

Meiji Japan ◽

Cultural Contexts ◽

Travel Writings ◽

Women's Travel ◽

Fictional Representations ◽

East West

The introductory chapter provides the historical and cultural contexts to situate the discussions on Victorian women’s travel writing on Meiji Japan in the wider academic debate on the British Empire, Victorian literature, and female travel writing. It provides an overview of Anglo–Japanese relations between 1854 and 1912 to trace shifts in the bilateral relationship and foreground its singularity in a multitude of East–West encounters. It then examines travel writings by both male and female travellers to Meiji Japan and fictional representations of the country in Victorian literature and theatre. It surveys travelogues by a group of female travellers alongside those by diplomats and journalists like Kipling, Japan-related writings by Wilde and Stevenson, and theatrical pieces such as The Mikado. The chapter considers the literary invention of Japan and analyses how women travellers negotiated discursive constraints due to gender and colonialism and challenged mainstream representations of Japan and Japanese people.

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