Thesis (MA (English Studies))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Texts by women travellers describing their journeys date back almost as far as
those produced by their male counterparts, yet women’s travel writing has only
become an area of academic interest during the past ten to fifteen years.
Previously, women’s travel writing was mostly read for its entertainment value
rather than its academic merit and – as Sara Mills notes in her Discourses of
Difference – appeared almost exclusively in the form of coffee table books or
biographies offering romanticized accounts of heroic, eccentric women who
undertook epic journeys to Africa (4). The growing interest in women’s travel
writing as part of colonial discourse coincides with the emergence of gender
studies and related subjects. The emergence of these areas of academic enquiry
can be attributed to the systematic dismantling of the patriarchal structures,
which previously dominated social and academic domains.
The aim of this study is to examine European women’s travel writing as a
subversive discourse which, while sharing some characteristics with traditional
male-produced travel texts from the colonial era, was informed by the discursive
constraints of femininity. These texts thus differ from male-produced texts in
the sense that, because of the different discursive constraints informing women’s
travel writing, they offer commentary on aspects of Africa and its peoples which
men had omitted in their travel accounts. Three specific texts by British women
who recorded their travels in Africa form the basis of the discussion in this
dissertation: the travel writing of Lady Anne Barnard (South African Cape Colony,
1797 – 1801), Mary Kingsley (West Africa: Gabon and the Congo, 1896 – 1900)
and Barbara Greene (Liberia, 1935). Since, as Mills argues, “feminist textual
theory has restricted itself to the analysis of literary texts and has been
concerned with analysis of the text itself” (12), which limits the extent to which
one can provide interesting, discerning, and relevant comment on women’s
writing, the readings of these texts are not limited to feminist theory of women’s
travel writing.
Social expectations until as recently as the early twentieth century located
women firmly in the domestic sphere. It was almost unthinkable for women to
undertake travels other than the traditional Grand Tour. To attempt to venture
into the predominantly male territory of travel writing was to expose oneself to
harsh criticism and to risk being labelled as eccentric and unfeminine. Thus
women had to find a way of making both their travels and writing seem
acceptable by social standards, while still presenting as true as possible a picture
of Africa in their writing. These constraints of the discourse of femininity on their
texts necessarily make women’s writing seem concerned almost exclusively with
matters of feminine interest. Mills attributes this to women travel writers’
“problematic status, caught between the conflicting demands of the discourse of
femininity and that of imperialism.” (Mills, Discourses of Difference 22) / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Reisbeskrywings deur vroue dateer byna so ver terug as dié wat deur mans
geskryf is. Tog het vroue se reisbeskrywings eers in die afgelope tien tot vyftien
jaar akademiese belangstelling begin ontlok. Voorheen is vroue se
reisbeskrywings meestal vir vermaak eerder as akademiese meriete gelees, en –
soos Sara Mills in haar Discourses of Difference opmerk – het dit byna uitsluitlik
verskyn as koffietafelboeke of verromantiseerde biografieë van heldhaftige,
sonderlinge vroue wat epiese reise na Afrika onderneem het (4).
Die toenemende belangstelling in vroue se reisbeskrywings as deel van koloniale
diskoers val saam met die verskyning van gender-studies en verwante
vakgebiede. Die ontstaan van hierdie akademiese vakgebiede kan toegeskryf
word aan die stelselmatige aftakeling van die paternalistiese strukture wat
sosiale en akademiese arenas voorheen oorheers het.
Die doel van hierdie studie is om Europese vroue se reisbeskrywings te
ondersoek as ‘n ondermynende diskoers wat, hoewel dit sekere eienskappe van
tradisionele reisbeskrywings deur manlike skrywers uit die koloniale tydperk
toon, gegrond is in die beperkende diskoers van vroulikheid. Hierdie tekste
verskil dus van tekste deur manlike skrywers in die opsig dat dit, as gevolg van
die verskillende diskoersbeperkinge waarin dit gegrond is, kommentaar lewer op
aspekte van Afrika en sy bevolking wat mans in hul reisbeskrywings uitgelaat
het. Drie spesifieke tekste deur Britse vroue wat hul reise beskryf het vorm die
grondslag van hierdie verhandeling; dit is die reisbeskrywings van Lady Anne
Barnard (Suid-Afrikaanse Kaapkolonie, 1797 – 1801), Mary Kingsley (Wes-
Afrika: Gaboen en die Kongo, 1896 – 1900) en Barbara Greene (Liberië, 1935).
Mills voer aan: “Feminist textual theory has restricted itself to the analysis of
literary texts and has been concerned with analysis of the text itself” (12). Dít
beperk die mate waartoe interessante, skerpsinnige en toepaslike kommentaar
oor vroue se reisbeskrywings gelewer kan word; dus is die interpretasie van
hierdie tekste nie beperk tot feministiese teorie met betrekking tot vrouereisbeskrywings
nie.
Tot so onlangs as die vroeë twintigste eeu het die samelewing se verwagtinge
vroue streng tot die huishoudelike sfeer beperk. Afgesien van die tradisionele
Grand Tour was dit bykans ondenkbaar vir vroue om te reis. As ‘n vrou inbreuk
sou probeer maak op die tradisioneel manlike gebied van die skryfkuns sou sy
haarself blootstel aan skerp kritiek en onwenslike etikettering as eksentriek en
onvroulik. Dus moes vroue ‘n manier vind om sowel hul reise as hul skryfwerk
sosiaal aanvaarbaar te maak en terselfdertyd so ‘n egte beeld as moontlik van
Afrika te skets in hul skryfwerk. Die beperkinge wat die diskoers van vroulikheid
op hul tekste plaas, lei noodwendig daartoe dat vroue se skryfwerk as byna
geheel en al beperk tot sake van vroulike belang voorkom. Mills skryf dít toe aan
vroue-reisbeskrywers se “problematic status, caught between the conflicting
demands of the discourse of femininity and that of imperialism.” (Mills,
Discourses of Difference 22)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:sun/oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/2673 |
| Date | 12 1900 |
| Creators | Visser, Liezel |
| Contributors | Klopper, D. C., University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of English. |
| Publisher | Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | University of Stellenbosch |
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