Victorian Women's Travel Writing on Meiji Japan: Hospitable Friendship

The book explores forgotten stories of cross-cultural friendship and intimacy between Victorian female travel writers and Meiji Japanese, highlighting the open subjectivity and affective relationality of their interactions. It challenges Oriental stereotypes and imperial binaries, tracing the shifts in the representation of Japan in Victorian discourse and the ethical and political implications of their writing. It also offers parallel narratives of three Meiji women in Britain and transnational feminist alliances.

Format: Hardback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 27 January 2022
Publisher: Oxford University Press

Victorian Women's Travel Writing on Meiji Japan: Hospitable Friendship explores the overlooked tales of cross-cultural friendship and intimacy between Victorian female travel writers and Meiji Japanese. By utilizing unpublished primary sources and contemporary Japanese literature that has yet to be translated into English, the book highlights the subjective and affective relationality of Isabella Bird, Mary Crawford Fraser, and Marie Stopes in their interactions with Japanese hosts. Through its examination, Victorian Women's Travel Writing on Meiji Japan demonstrates how travel narratives and literary works about non-colonial Japan complicate and challenge Oriental stereotypes and imperial binaries. It traces the shifts in the representation of Japan in Victorian discourse, from obsequious mousmé to virile samurai, alongside transitions in the Anglo-Japanese bilateral relationship and global geopolitical events.

In considering the ethical and political implications of how Victorian women wrote about their Japanese friends, the book examines how female travelers created counter discourses. It charts the unexplored terrain of female interracial and cross-cultural friendship and love in Victorian literature, emphasizing the agency of female travelers against the scholarly tendency to depoliticize their literary praxis. Furthermore, the book offers parallel narratives of three Meiji women in Britain: Tsuda Umeko, Yasui Tetsu, and Yosano Akiko, as well as a transnational feminist alliance.

The book serves as a celebration of the political possibility of female friendship and literature, while also serving as a reminder of the ethical responsibility of representing racial and cultural others. It contributes to our understanding of the complexities of gender, race, and culture in the late 19th century and offers valuable insights into the enduring power of cross-cultural connections.

Weight: 422g
Dimension: 144 x 222 x 22 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780198871439