HIST 102 Girls Gone Wild: Reading Women's Journeys, from the Wife of Bath to Thelma and Louise
Ghazvinian
Taught as schedule allows (consult the Course Directory)
SEM
Women have been going on journeys for at least as long as men have, yet the female version of travel has always been proscribed, negotiated, or compromised in some way. As early as the fourth century, women went on religious pilgrimages, and wrote about their journeys. When the Grand Tour of the 17th century was off-limits to them, they used restorative trips to Spa as an excuse to go abroad and see the continent. When Victorian ladies travelled through Africa by themselves, they were dismissed as dilettantes and scientific lightweights. Even in our own "liberated" age, a film about two women on a road trip is instantly labelled "feminist" or a "chick flick". Why have men in almost every period of history found the idea of female travellers so threatening? What strategies have women wanting to see the world adopted over the centuries to help them avoid (or perhaps invite) the accusation that they are dangerous, loose or lustful? As historians, we have to work harder, look closer, and think more creatively to find evidence of women's journeys, yet we are always richly rewarded when we do, and this seminar will be devoted to understanding how to discover and read the female journey amidst centuries of obfuscation and dissimulation.
