Distressed micropsia: size distortion and psychological disturbance in Isabella Bird’s Unbeaten Tracks and in subsequent travel writing on Japan, 1880–1900

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe travel books of Isabella Bird are noted for their accuracy and for their close attention to detail, measurements and statistics. In general, Unbeaten Tracks in Japan (1880) is no exception. However, when describing physical size, Bird vastly exaggerates the smallness of Japan and the Japanese while depicting herself as much larger in comparison – despite being roughly the same size as the average Japanese subject herself. In this article, I argue that Bird’s size distortions can be read as a sign of neurosis, and I demonstrate how subsequent writers such as Pierre Loti and Rudyard Kipling also used distortions in perspective and proportion to signify psychological discomfort. I describe how both Japanese and avant-garde Victorian art used perspective distortion to signal emotional distress, and suggest that art, as well as contemporary psychological theories, may have influenced the way these authors depicted physical size.