Nineteenth century English travelers in the East: Armenia seen by Isabella Bird and George Gordon Byron

Abstract

My dissertation aims to explore the British travels to the Continent in the nineteenth century. In particular, I focus my attention on English travelers in the East, analyzing their writings, accounting for their experiences and motivations. Firstly, I introduce the social, cultural and political background of Britain in that period, also referring to the question of gender of the Victorian woman. Moreover, I analyze the experiences in the East of Freya Stark and Gertrude Bell. Specifically, I consider the reproduction of Armenia in travel accounts of Victorian adventurers; in particular I take into consideration the two figures, Isabella Bird and George Gordon Byron, and I analyze some of their travel accounts, mainly Isabella Bird’s Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan and George Gordon Byron’s Turkish tales.