Between Painting and Writing: The Orient in Women’s Travel Writing and Sackville West’s <i>Passenger to Teheran</i>

Federica Frediani

doi:10.13125/2039-6597/307

Federica Frediani Institute for Mediterranean Studies at the University of Italian Switzerland

DOI: https://doi.org/10.13125/2039-6597/307

Keywords: Representations, Travel Writing, Orient, Art, Sackville-West

Abstract

This essay aims to illustrate the representations of the Orient in nineteenth- and twentieth-century women’s travel writing. In part, it focuses on the aesthetic considerations of the relationship between literature, art, and reality that are features of most travel accounts; in part, on Vita Sackville-West’s Passenger to Teheran (1927) as an eloquent and rich example of women’s travel writing and of the difficulty inherent in approaching and portraying the Orient. Facing the limits of language and a lack of words, writer-travellers draw upon the tools of painting, often making use of meta-literary references.

Sackville-West illustrates the difficulty of recalling and describing accurately the places one has known and seen in the past. She introduces her book with a meta-textual reflection on the fundamental issues regarding the relationship between art and reality, while simultaneously posing innovative and unconventional questions about the characteristics and the value of travel literature.

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Author Biography

Federica Frediani, Institute for Mediterranean Studies at the University of Italian Switzerland

Federica Frediani has a PhD in comparative literature at the University of Siena and is Research Assistant and Professor at the Institute for Mediterranean Studies at the University of Italian Switzerland. Her interests include travel literature, taking in special consideration the works of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century women travellers. She also carries out research on the representations and literary images of the Mediterranean, on cultural heritage and tourism. She has published articles, essays, and books, including Uscire. La scrittura di viaggio delle donne al femminile: dai paradigmi mitici alle immagini orientaliste (Diabasis, 2007). Together with Anna Omodei Zorini, she co-edited Ulisse: Variazioni di un mito mediterraneo (Franco Angeli Editore, 2006); and with Maria Teresa Giaveri, Anna Omodei Zorini, Vincenzo Salerno, and Massimo Scotti, Lo sguardo azzurro. Costanti e varianti dell’immaginario mediterraneo (Mesogea, 2008). Most recently, she co-edited Ethos repubblicano e pensiero meridiano (Diabasis, 2011) with Fernanda Gallo.

References

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Between Painting and Writing: The Orient in Women’s Travel Writing and Sackville West’s Passenger to Teheran

Abstract

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Author Biography

References