Women experience and portray travel differently: Gender matters - irreducibly and complexly. Building on recent scholarship in women's travel writing, these provocative essays not only affirm the impact of gender, but also cast women's journeys against coordinates such as race, class, culture, religion, economics, politics, and history. The book's scope is unique: Women travelers extend in time from Victorian memsahibs to contemporary «road girls», and topics range from Anna Leonowens's slanted portrayal of Siam - later popularized in the movie, The King and I, to current feminist «descripting» of the male-road-buddy genre. The extensive array of writers examined includes Nancy Prince, Frances Trollope, Cameron Tuttle, Lady Mary Montagu, Catherine Oddie, Kate Karko, Frances Calderón de la Barca, Rosamond Lawrence, Zilpha Elaw, Alexandra David-Néel, Amelia Edwards, Erica Lopez, Paule Marshall, Bharati Mukherjee, and Marilynne Robinson. Women experience and portray travel differently: Gender matters ¿ irreducibly and complexly. Building on recent scholarship in women¿s travel writing, these provocative essays not only affirm the impact of gender, but also cast women¿s journeys against coordinates such as race, class, culture, religion, economics, politics, and history. The book¿s scope is unique: Women travelers extend in time from Victorian memsahibs to contemporary «road girls», and topics range from Anna Leonowens¿s slanted portrayal of Siam ¿ later popularized in the movie, The King and I, to current feminist «descripting» of the male-road-buddy genre. The extensive array of writers examined includes Nancy Prince, Frances Trollope, Cameron Tuttle, Lady Mary Montagu, Catherine Oddie, Kate Karko, Frances Calderón de la Barca, Rosamond Lawrence, Zilpha Elaw, Alexandra David-Néel, Amelia Edwards, Erica Lopez, Paule Marshall, Bharati Mukherjee, and Marilynne Robinson. Acknowledgments ix Introduction INTERSECTIONS: WOMEN'S TRAVEL AND THEORY Kristi Siegel 1(14) Part One: Gender Chapter One THE GAZE OF THE VICTORIAN WOMAN TRAVELER: SPECTACLES AND PHENOMENA Ruth Y. Jenkins 15(16) Chapter Two LADY MARY MONTAGU AND THE "BOUNDARIES" OF EUROPE Sukanya Banerjee 31(24) Chapter Three WOMEN'S TRAVEL AND THE RHETORIC OF PERIL: IT IS SUICIDE TO BE ABROAD Kristi Siegel 55(18) Chapter Four THE DAUGHTERS OF THELMA AND LOUISE: NEW? AESTHETICS OF THE ROAD Jessica Enevold 73(24) Chapter Five WOMEN WRITERS AND THE INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE: PASSING PENELOPE PITSTOP Rachel A. Jennings 97(26) Part Two: Genre Chapter Six FRANCES TROLLOPE'S AMERICA AND ANNA LEONOWENS'S SIAM: QUESTIONABLE TRAVEL AND PROBLEMATIC WRITING Chu-Chueh Cheng 123(44) Chapter Seven NANCY PRINCE AND HER GOTHIC ODYSSEY: A VEILED LADY Sarah Brusky 167(14) Chapter Eight ZILPHA ELAW'S SERIAL DOMESTICITY: AN UNSENTIMENTAL JOURNEY Rosetta R. Haynes 181(12) Chapter Nine WOMEN'S TRAVEL WRITING AND THE POLITICS OF LOCATION: SOMEWHERE IN-BETWEEN Heidi Slettedahl Macpherson 193(16) Chapter Ten THE PROBLEM OF NARRATIVE AUTHORITY: CATHERINE ODDIE AND KATE KARKO Corinne Fowler 209(16) Part Three: Identity Chapter Eleven A PROTESTANT CRITIQUE OF CATHOLICISM: FRANCES CALDERÓN DE LA BARCA IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY MEXICO Linda Ledford-Miller 225(10) Chapter Twelve IDENTITY IN ROSAMOND LAWRENCE'S INDIAN EMBERS: "I CANNOT SOMEHOW FIND MYSELF" Terri A. Hasseler 235(28) Chapter Thirteen AMERICAN NATIONAL IDENTITY ABROAD: THE TRAVELS OF NANCY PRINCE Kristin Fitzpatrick 263(16) Chapter Fourteen ALEXANDRA DAVID-NÉEL'S HOME IN THE HIMALAYAS: WHERE THE HEART LIES Margaret McColley 279(14) Chapter Fifteen A FEMINIST LENS FOR BINX BOLLING'S JOURNEY IN THE MOVIEGOER: TRAVELING TOWARD WHOLENESS Kathleen Scullin 293(16) List of Contributors 309(4) Index 313