Discourses of Difference: An Analysis of Women's Travel Writing and Colonialism

by Sara Mills

Overview

Discourses of Difference unravels the complexities of writings by British women travellers of the ‘high colonial' period. Sara Mills examines the relation of women travellers to colonialism, positioned as they were at the site of conflicting discourses: femininity, feminism, and patriarchal imperialism. Using feminist discourse theory, Sara Mills analyses the writings of three women travellers - Alexandra David-Neel, Mary Kingsley and Nina Mazuchelli. Her examination of agency, identity, and the contemporary social environment, is an important and inspiring step forward in post-colonial cultural and literary theory.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415046299
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	11/28/1991
Pages:	244
Product dimensions:	5.44(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Sara Mills

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements, INTRODUCTION, Part I Critical Responses to Women’s Travel Writing, Part II Constraints on Production and Reception, Part III Case Studies, Notes, Bibliography, Index

Editorial Reviews

Beginning with the analysis of colonial writing by Michel Foucault, Edward Said, and others, Mills (English and drama, Loughborough U.) identifies distinctive characteristics of women's writings within the genre. She focuses on the zenith of the British Empire, 1850-1930, and considers the travel accounts of Alexandra David-Neel, Mary Kingsley, and Nina Mazuchelli. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

‘Evinces a keen awareness of the constraints governing the production and reception of women's travel writing. Mills's approach, [a combination of Marxism, feminism, and Foucaudianism], shines through...and is capable of generating highly suggestive cultural analyses.' - Times Higher Educational Supplement

From the Publisher