Feminism on the horizon The role of gender as portrayed in the female travel writings of Mary Wollstonecraft and Fredrika Bremer Bregje van de Straat 10556087 MA European Studies (Identity and Integration) University of Amsterdam Supervisor: dr. A.J. Drace-Francis Second Supervisor: dr. M.J.M. Rensen September 2018 Table of Contents Introduction 3 Theoretical Framework and Methodology 4 Chapter 1 Biographies of Wollstonecraft and Bremer 10 1.1 Mary Wollstonecraft 11 1.2 Fredrika Bremer 16 1.3 Conclusion 21 Chapter 2 Descriptions of Landscape: the Picturesque and the Sublime 23 2.1 The Picturesque and Sublime in Mary Wollstonecraft’s Letters 24 2.2 Fredrika Bremer’s England and the Picturesque and Sublime 27 2.3 Conclusion 30 Chapter 3 Center-Periphery 32 3.1 Center-Periphery in Mary Wollstonecraft’s Letters 33 3.2 Center-Periphery in Fredrika Bremer’s England 37 3.3 Conclusion 40 Chapter 4 Gender and Travel 41 4.1 The Political and the Self 43 4.2 Feminine Themes 46 4.3 Fear of Traveling Alone? 49 4.4 Conclusion 50 Conclusion 52 Bibliography 55 2 Introduction Women’s travel writing is a relatively new genre, and most books on women’s travel writing focus on writers from the English-speaking world.1 While I, like these books, will be analyzing a British author, Mary Wollstonecraft, as well, I will also be examining the work of a Swedish author, Fredrika Bremer, as her work on her travels to England has not received much academic attention. I hope to add to the academic appreciation of Bremer’s work in the genre by analyzing Bremer’s England om hösten år 1851 [transl.: England in the fall of the year 1851], which is comprised of a series of articles she wrote for Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, and juxtaposing it with Wollstonecraft’s Letters written during a short residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.2 I have also chosen to analyze the works of two authors that are visiting each other’s countries, because their opinions and observations in the context of a literary analysis could create a fuller picture of the role of gender in the times in which they wrote. I have chosen to focus on and write about Britain and Sweden for this Master thesis, because both countries are geographically located on the edges of Europe and though they are members of the European Union – for now, both joined much later than most of Western Europe (Britain in 1973 and Sweden in 1995)3 and chose to keep their own currencies when the Euro was introduced.4 I chose to analyze the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries because of the status of each country at that time: Great Britain was in the midst of an Industrial Revolution whereas Sweden was still a mostly agricultural society, their industry did not develop on such a large scale until the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although the European Union did not quite exist yet at the time of writing for both primary texts, Britain and Sweden were both following their own path at the time. While the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries seem far away from today, some of the themes I will be discussing are still relevant today. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the British had a vast colonial empire and an Industrial Revolution ahead of most other 1 Some examples being Shirley Foster and Sara Mills’ An anthology of women’s travel writing, or Sara Mills’ Discourses of Difference: An Analysis of Women’s Travel Writing and Colonialism. 2 This is the original title of the work, the version I read changed the title to Letters written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. 3 European Union, “Countries,” https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/countries_en#tab-0-1, accessed 28 June 2018. 4 European Union, “The euro,” https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/money/euro_en#euro, accessed 28 June 2018. 3 (European) countries. It would be intriguing to see through Mary Wollstonecraft’s Letters written during a short residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, whether the British had a sense of superiority similar to the air of superiority that the Brexit vote in 2016 seemed to show. Today, Sweden is known for its gender equality and it would be interesting to discover what role gender played in society before it was industrialized, so in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Though gender equality seems to work well in Sweden, it is not quite as equal everywhere else, the recent ‘Time’s Up’ movement proves that a gender division still exists today and is therefore an important subject.5 Because of the inequality in today’s gender roles, looking into the gender roles of the past could prove to be interesting, especially because the authors of the primary sources are both women traveling alone. In patriarchal societies like those in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and still today in some parts of the world, a woman’s role was limited to care in the household, they could for instance only be wives and mothers, and having Mary Wollstonecraft and Fredrika Bremer not just as famous authors but also as women traveling alone shows that they too were following their own paths and escaping the common gender roles. Theoretical Framework and Methodology Travel writing is a form of literature with a long tradition. The first travel writers we know of stem from before the Common Era. Travel books can serve many purposes, but it could be argued that the main aim is to introduce the reader to the ‘Other’ and thus observing the self and the world.6 Travel writing in more recent centuries focuses on a European perspective on other areas of the world, but there are, of course, also “differences within Europe – there are different Europes – and the ways in which those differences are enforced parallel the processes of Othering enacted elsewhere.”7 Those differences within Europe as can be recognized in travel writing, are also part of a subject called ‘imagology’. Imagology studies characteristics of national characters and countries through text, intertext, and context. This will be explained further below. Part of the context is the genre itself, travel writing, which will be discussed first. 5 Time’s Up, “Time’s Up: The clock has run out on sexual assault, harassment and inequality in the workplace. It’s time to do something about it,” accessed 4 February 2018, https://www.timesupnow.com/. 6 Casey Blanton, “Preface,” in Travel Writing. The self and the world, Casey Blanton (New York: Routledge, 2002), xi. 7 Glenn Hooper and Tim Youngs, “Introduction, ” in Perspectives on Travel Writing, eds. Glenn Hooper and Tim Youngs (Aldsershot: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2004), 1. 4 As I will be analyzing two travel books written by women who were famous authors in their time, Fredrika Bremer and Mary Wollstonecraft, and women’s travel writing has been seen as different from men’s travel writing – or simply the genre of travel writing – for a long time, the subgenre of women’s travel writing will be discussed later in this thesis as well. Travel Writing Over the centuries, travel has existed in many forms and for many purposes. At some point in time, written records of such travels came into existence, some of which we know of today. Herodotus, also known as ‘the Father of History,’ is one of these early travel writers. In his work, discovery and the newly discovered world was more important than his inner self. Early works like his often only recorded details of this world. While Herodotus wrote in the fifth century B.C., about ten centuries later there was a Southern-European nun, Egeria, who made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. She wrote letters to other nuns, and this form is closer to modern travel writing than Herodotus’ travelogue. The most important distinction between the two texts is that Egeria detailed her trip, and her text reflects her chronologically traveling places as well as interpreting what she sees and personally experiences. It is for this reason that some see Egeria as the first true travel writer.8 Because Egeria was one of the first travel writers, it is too soon to say whether her gender influenced her writing, because at that time, there were not enough records to compare her work to. More written records of travels began to appear in the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, with more men traveling as merchants, missionaries or explorers. Among these are the well-known travel narratives of Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus who both set out to explore the ‘East’, and ‘Othered’ the people they encountered in their works. ‘Othering’ in such travel texts is an example of judging the unfamiliar countries and their cultures according to the author’s own norms and values, and therefore believing they have control over these ‘others’. With increasing discoveries, such a custom remained prevalent for centuries.9 In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, travelers from various European lands explored the New World and brought back travel accounts and stories of the beauty, riches, and freedom, which inspired others, especially the oppressed, to undertake their own journeys. Travel books written by these explorers often consisted mostly of a logbook-like 8 Blanton, “Narrating Self and Other: A Historical Overview” in Travel Writing. The self and the world, 6. 9 Ibid.,” 7-9. 5 account with the inner journey not often used yet, though somewhat emerging. More fictional travel accounts began emerging during this time as well. These accounts contained “purpose, danger, adventure, failure, and new possibilities,”10 which paved the way for a more literary form of travel writing.11 The development of the inner journey in travel writing surfaced in the eighteenth century.