Abstract
Focussing on the northern travelogues of two women travellers from the late nineteenth century, Ethel Brilliana Tweedie’s A Winter Jaunt to Norway: with Accounts of Nansen, Ibsen, Bjornson, Brandes, and Many Others and Polar Gleams; an Account of a Voyage on the Yacht ‘Blencathra’ by Helen Peel, this article suggests that rather than presenting a polarized gendered perspective of Arctic travel, in their writing Peel and Tweedie negotiate between masculine and feminine-coded associations in order to legitimate and popularize their travels, whilst remaining within the conventions of Victorian femininity. Of the strategies for ensuring the apparent propriety of their text, the references to clothing are highly significant on several levels. Not only could Peel and Tweedie show their adherence (or not) to conventional feminine dress through their descriptions of their clothing, they could also illustrate their relationship to other travellers and the Norwegians they encountered. Thus the ‘petticoat encumbrances’ have a double function in the text. Symbolic of Victorian conventions of femininity and their limitations on women, the adherence to sartorial norms at least indicated to readers and critics of the woman traveller’s compliance with gender conventions. This achieved, the woman travel writer had more scope to embark on her remarkable journey and to write about its potential adventures with enthusiasm as a ‘female adventurer’ and still remain within the acceptable boundaries of late-Victorian femininity.
Highlights
Day, on going up on deck, I found the ship presenting quite an arctic appearance
Focussing on the northern travelogues of two women travellers from the late nineteenth century, Ethel Brilliana Tweedie‘s A Winter Jaunt to Norway: with Accounts of Nansen, Ibsen, Bjornson, Brandes, and Many Others and Polar Gleams; an Account of a Voyage on the Yacht ‘Blencathra’ by Helen Peel, in this article I suggest that rather than presenting a polarized gendered perspective of Arctic travel, Peel and Tweedie negotiated between masculine and feminine-coded associations in order to legitimate and popularize their travels, whilst remaining within the conventions of Victorian femininity
Feminist scholars have noted the tendency of women travel writers of the nineteenth century to adopt modes of writing and practices associated with conventional femininity, whilst at the same time challenging the borders of such conventions and including material perceived asmasculine‘ in content and style
Summary
On going up on deck, I found the ship presenting quite an arctic appearance. Even in their references to the similarities between their journeys to Nansen‘s expedition and insights into its dangers, Peel and Tweedie‘s texts become implicitly associated with a discourse of adventure and exploration, differentiating them from the numerous female accounts of the Northern tour which had been published by the final decade of the century.. Alec Tweedie is the clever lady who goes to places on things‘ (The Academy 1901, 408) The reception of both texts signals the success with which both Tweedie and Peel negotiate conventional codes in addition to their portrayal of themselves asfemale adventurers.‘ The construction of the narrative persona in Peel and Tweedie‘s travelogues corresponds to the importance, noted by Kristi Siegel, of maintaining an image of conventional femininity in order to retain the interest of the reading public in the nineteenth century. According to Ryall, Tweedie‘s travelogues were not perceived as unacceptably challenging to the acceptable boundaries of feminine behaviour because by the 1890sthe notion of a sporty lady was no longer seen as a contradiction in terms‘ and thatall Tweedie‘s northern tours exemplify this development in their simultaneous emphasis on respectable femininity and adventurous athleticism‘ (Ryall 2009, 277). Tweedie‘s emphasis in her account of her clothing is contrasting to Peel‘s, the fact that she includes this level of detail is itself indicative of the particularities noted in travel writing by women
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