Lo spaesamento delle viaggiatrici europee al nord

Ellen Patat

doi:10.18352/inc11005

Abstract

The displacement of European female Travellers in the North  Estrangements in travel writing The present paper focuses on the travel accounts written by four women who decided to visit the European North in mid- and late-Nineteenth century: Ida Laura Pfeiffer’s Visit to Iceland and Scandinavian North (1853), Carla Serena’s Mon voyage personnels: souvenirs De la Baltique à la Mer Caspienne (1881), Ethel Brianna Tweedies’ A girl’s ride in Iceland (1889), and Elisa Cappelli’s In Svezia. Impressioni di viaggio (1902). The aim is to analyse these travel diaries to identify the various forms of displacement and estrangement presented to the readers. The term ‘displacement’ is here to be understood as the condition of the ‘outsider’, the perception of being ‘the Other’, whereas ‘estrangement’ could be considered the reformulation of this awareness. This paper highlights real displacements that derive from social, cultural, geographical, and gender discrepancies adopting a comparative approach, which concentrates on the textual and semantic solutions, also taking into account the interdependence of travel and writing and of space and people. These aspects intertwine with the factual reality of the travel discourse, ultimately leading to both ‘literary’ and ‘existential’ estrangements.

Highlights

The present paper focuses on the travel accounts written by four women who decided to visit the European North in mid- and late-Nineteenth century: Ida Laura Pfeiffer’s Visit to Iceland and Scandinavian North (1853), Carla Serena’s Mon voyage personnels: souvenirs De la Baltique à la Mer Caspienne (1881), Ethel Brianna Tweedies’ A girl’s ride in Iceland (1889), and Elisa Cappelli’s In Svezia
Nella classica ermeneutica dello spaesamento che produce divergenze sostanziali tra realtà e immaginato, contribuiscono attivamente alla decostruzione e ricostruzione di stereotipi culturali tra i comuni lettori: ammantate di connotazioni positive sono indubbiamente le prospettive di Elisa Cappelli e, in un certo qual modo, le interpretazioni di Carla Serena, che parte però da un punto d’osservazione privilegiato; meno elogiative, più critiche e dirette, invece, le posizioni di Pfeiffer e Alec-Tweedie, quest’ultima particolarmente interessata agli aspetti scientifici

Summary

Introduction

Il corpus del presente saggio è composto dalle narrazioni odeporiche di quattro viaggiatrici europee che hanno sperimentato e descritto il grande nord europeo[2] dalla seconda metà dell’Ottocento: in ordine cronologico, Ida Laura Pfeiffer con Visit to Iceland and Scandinavia North[3] (1853), Carla Serena e il suo Mon voyage: souvenirs

Results

Conclusion