Richard Francis Burton and Anne Blunt both travelled to an Islamic country in the 19thcentury. They both wrote about their journeys - Anne Blunt leftA Pilgrimage to Nejd. The Cradle of the Arab Racebehind, Richard Burton published aPersonal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah- and one can learn from their writings that they encountered partly the same problems or experienced similar incidents. But their accounts also differ from each other in several aspects. Those differences have various reasons; some could be explained by their different destinations, the Nejd and Al-Madinah & Meccah, others emanate from their gender and the constraints the time they lived in brought with that. In order to analyse how Blunt and Burton address the issue of gender in their travelogues, it is important to take different aspects into consideration. Thus ‘[t]ravel writing cannot be read as a simple account of a journey, a country and a narrator, but must be seen in the light of discourses circulating at this time.’ Burton and Blunt wrote about ‘[…] their travels within a multiplicity of constraints - gender, class, purpose of their journey, textual conventions, audience […] - which acted upon and formed their writing.’ Although both of them travelled to achieve further knowledge about the geography of the countries they went to, Burton’s purpose also was ‘[…] to see with [his] eyes […] Moslem inner life in a really Mohammedan country […]’. Therefore, in contrast to Anne Blunt, Burton travelled in disguise and consequently, one can expect them to focus on different things. As a woman Anne Blunt had easier access to harems, whereas Burton had to take on the role of a doctor to get the chance to get into closer contact with women. On the other hand, ‘[…] it would have been considered improper for a woman writer even to allude to sexual matters.’ So, public expectations or rather standards determined the topics women were allowed, but also topics they were expected to write about, such as domestic life; Burton as male person did not see himself confronted with such restrictions. [...]
Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)
- How do Richard Burton and Anne Blunt address the issue of gender in their accounts of travel in Arabia?
Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)
This paper explores the way in which gender is presented in the travel writings of Richard Burton and Anne Blunt, both of whom travelled to the Islamic world in the 19th century. It analyzes how their different experiences and perspectives shaped their accounts of their journeys, and how these accounts reflect the social and cultural norms of their time.
- Gender roles and expectations in 19th-century Britain
- The influence of colonial discourse on travel writing
- The representation of Arab culture and society
- The impact of personal experiences and perspectives on travel writing
- The use of generalizations and stereotypes in travel writing
Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)
The paper begins by introducing the works of Richard Burton and Anne Blunt, highlighting their shared experiences as travelers to an Islamic country in the 19th century. The authors’ different backgrounds and purposes of travel, as well as the gendered constraints of their time, are discussed as contributing factors to the divergences in their writings.
The paper then focuses on the ways in which both Burton and Blunt employ generalizations and classifications when portraying the people they encounter. It explores how they differentiate between town-Arabs and Bedouins, civilized and uncivilized people, and the implications of these classifications in terms of racial and cultural prejudice.
The paper then moves on to analyze the specific depictions of men and women in the travelogues, considering how the authors’ gendered perspectives and the social norms of their time shaped their representations of both sexes.
The paper concludes by discussing the significance of Blunt and Burton's travel writing in relation to the broader themes of colonialism, gender, and representation. It examines how their works offer insights into the complex interplay of these themes in the 19th century.
Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)
Travel writing, gender, colonialism, Arab culture, stereotypes, generalizations, representation, Richard Burton, Anne Blunt.
- Quote paper
- Jonas Ole Langner (Author), 2004, How do Richard Burton and Anne Blunt address the issue of gender in their accounts of travel in Arabia?, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.hausarbeiten.de/document/59079
