This volume, the first of its kind, investigates the representation of women in the travel accounts of European travellers from the Age of Exploration until the Grand Tour across different cultural traditions, both European and non-European. It brings together, in a new perspective, travel writing, women's history, and gender studies, offering a systematic and comparative approach to a subject that has not yet received the scholarly attention it deserves.

Explores the representation of women in early modern travel literature Gathers a broad range of geographical perspectives Considers the factors that shaped travellers' perception of women

Autorentext

Helena Sanson is Professor of Italian, History of Linguistics and Women’s Studies at the University of Cambridge, UK.

Mägorzata Trzeciak-Cygan is Assistant Professor of Italian Literature in the Faculty of Applied Linguistics, University of Warsaw, Poland.

Inhalt

1. Gender Otherness in Travel Writing: The Perspective of European Travelers - Helena Sanson and Magorzata Trzeciak-Cygan .- 2. Italian Travelers and Female Sovereignty in Early Modern Europe - Eleonora Belligni .- 3. Bona Sforza and Anna Jagiellon in the Eyes of Italian Ambassadors, Travelers, and Polish Nobles - Olga M. Hajduk .- 4. Women in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth through Travelers' Eyes: Seventeenth-century British and Italian Perspectives - Magorzata Trzeciak-Cygan .- 5. The Most Agreeable Women in Europe? British Travelers and Spanish Women, 17501809 - Richard Ansell and Rosemary Sweet .- 6. Women, Language, Education in Italy's Long Eighteenth Century: The Views of French and English Travelers - Helena Sanson .- 7. Walking on the Wild Side: Indigenous Women in Sixteenth-century Travel Accounts of Brazil - Vivien Kogut Lessa de Sá .- 8. Portrayals of Women and Linguistic Stability in Two New World Travel Narratives - Caroline Egan .- 10. Images of Women in the State of India in European Travel Accounts (SixteenthSeventeenth Centuries) - Joana Fraga .- 11. The Culture and Status of Early Modern Japanese Women, According to Luis Frois - Mihoko Suzuki .- 12. Chinese Women in European Travelers' Descriptions - Maria Rosa Gianninoto.