The servant as narrative vehicle in nineteenth-century travel texts about Norway and Iceland

Abstract

ABSTRACTBy focusing on the representation of the travelling servant, on whom as Clifford (1997) acknowledges there is a paucity of evidence, this essay presents a contrapuntal reading of two nineteenth-century British travelogues, Letters from High Latitudes by Lord Dufferin (1857) and A Summer and Winter in Norway by Lady Diana Beauclerk (1868). Drawing from Edward Said’s reformulation of the musical term, the essay argues that servants contributed to the textual production of the journey in these nineteenth-century travelogues. In the two texts considered here, the representation of the servant and his or her actions renders the travel more interesting and offers a counterpoint to the narratorial voice of the author–traveller.