Abstract
This article studies the Orientalist and Feminist discourses that underlay Ellen M. Rogers’s A Winter in Algeria: 1863-4 (1865). Her conception of Algeria reproduces the Victorian imperialist attitude toward the Algerian as inferior to the European in order to celebrate British imperial power. Underneath this colonial discourse, the writer proclaims her feminist point of view about empire and juxtaposes feminist attitudes in Victorian Britain with the degraded condition of the Oriental woman. To contribute to Victorian feminist struggle for gender equality, she identifies with the suffering of Muslim Algerian women under male domination and compares their confinement to the harem and their veiling to Victorian “separate spheres” ideology. From this perspective, Rogers presents the profiles of the Orientalist as defined by Edward Said (1978) and the feminist as defined by Antoinette Burton (1994). Said limits his discussion of Orientalism to male writers and travelers who construct imperialist views about the colonial world and its people. However, Burton argues that many Victorian travel writers were women who not only circulated Orientalist ideas but also constructed a feminist discourse. Women writers found in the colonial world ways to cross the boundaries of gender and power in order to criticize male writers who insisted on women’s inferior status. In sum, the major claim made in this article is that Ellen M. Rogers projects a feminist-Orientalist view in her travel account about French Algeria.
Highlights
Alicante Journal of English StudiesIn postcolonial studies, questions concerning gender polemics and the power of empire often go hand in hand
She asserts that Victorian women profited from the imperial enterprise by confirming in their writings the Orientalist tradition which, in turn, they used to express their feminist struggle against their male-defined inferior status at home (Burton, 1994: 5)
To Rogers, the Algerians beseech the intervention of Europeans for their cultural and intellectual salvation. She states: “the poor Arabs begin to excite our interest greatly. Would that these poor Arabs knew the value of the Lamp of Life!” (29; italics added) Given their backward condition, they need to be integrated into the enlightened work of the English, who contribute to implementing Victorian progress8 in Algeria
Summary
Questions concerning gender polemics and the power of empire often go hand in hand. She asserts that Victorian women profited from the imperial enterprise by confirming in their writings the Orientalist tradition which, in turn, they used to express their feminist struggle against their male-defined inferior status at home (Burton, 1994: 5) This resulted in a new, ground-breaking genre, namely Feminist Orientalism advanced, for instance, in women’s travel writing.. This article focuses on studying the Feminist and Orientalist discourses that underlay Rogers’s travelogue A Winter in Algeria: 1863-4 (1865) In her text, she retools the Victorian imperialist representation of Algeria as inferior to European powers, especially Britain, to participate in imperial culture. She retools the Victorian imperialist representation of Algeria as inferior to European powers, especially Britain, to participate in imperial culture This allows her to relocate Victorian feminist ideologies and the struggle for gender equality to the male-centered Algerian context. They support empire, its ideologies and its missionary policies to plead the cause of Victorian women
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