L’Orient s’en va. Nineteenth-Century Western Women Travellers and their Routes of Knowledge for South-Eastern Europe

The Nineteenth century, a century called “of nationalities”, brought a transformation with respect to the traveller’s profile. If the tourist and the globetrotter were the newcomers in this social category, the things changed even further as travelling was no longer a masculine occupation. This became evident, attracting new possibilities. Exotic and dangerous places re-branded themselves as more welcoming, and Western women travellers engaged with them in different ways than their predecessors. This study discusses travel and mobility from a gender perspective and explores the legacies of the Ottoman Empire in regard to South-Eastern European provinces in creating a nuanced image of these territories in the eyes of Western women travellers.

keywords: south-eastern europe, nineteenth century, women, travel, knowledge, stereotypes