Freya Stark: Travel writing through the eyes of a nineteenth century woman

Abstract

This thesis aims to analyse travel writing from the perspective of the British-Italian writer Freya Stark, a prolific yet often overlooked author and explorer who travelled for most of the twentieth century. The first chapter focuses on travel literature as a genre, its history and contradictory use in European British tradition, to broaden one’s knowledge but also to affirm oneself through the creation of the ‘Other’, and the figure of the author-traveller, whose perspective of the countries and people are seen through. A section will be dedicated to analysing the woman traveller perspective and how their gender may have influenced their literary works and their relationship with the ‘Other’. The second chapter focuses on Freya Stark. A controversial and ambivalent author who lived erratically and freely: a woman who strived for the freedom to live her life as she chose yet did not consider herself a feminist; a traveller who was fond of socialising with the locals, learning other languages and cultures, but was nonetheless prone to Orientalist attitudes in her writing, with an appreciation for sensationalising her ‘adventures’. This thesis analyses her works from a comparative and diachronic perspective, the evolution of said author and her ambivalent relationship with the Orient while living in a tumultuous period of change. Three works of hers will be then analysed. The first is The Valley of the Assassins, a recollection of her travel through the region of Luristan, published for the first time in 1934. The second will be East is West, which recounts her experiences during World War II as a British diplomat in the Middle East region. The third will be The Minaret of Djam: An Excursion in Afghanistan, one of her last works, which describes her travel through the country in 1970.