Women Travel Writing and the Imperial Archive
A Case Study of Isabella Lucy Bird’s "The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither" (1883)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18172/jes.6690Keywords:
Bird, anthropology, ethnography, geography, history, imperial archive, travel writingAbstract
The present essay studies Isabella Lucy Bird’s contribution to disseminating knowledge about the Malay Peninsula in The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither (1883). Borrowing concepts from Thomas Richards (1993) and Bernard S. Cohn (1996), it analyzes how Bird negotiates her place in the British “imperial archive.” As a woman travel writer, she sets herself as a learned authority on the Malay Peninsula. Therefore, her text is replete with knowledge about the Peninsula and contributes to Britain’s “knowledge-producing institutions” of Empire, to borrow Richard’s words. The knowledge she transmits corresponds to the “investigative modalities” elaborated by Cohn. Bird provides a historical and political account of the states of the region that are either under British rule or worthy of annexation to it. She accounts for the geography, climate and natural environment of these states. She also disseminates knowledge about population diversity in the Peninsula and emphasizes dominant groups like the Malays. Through these, Bird also revises misconceptions about the region. In sum, Bird uses the Peninsula to contribute to the British “imperial archive” and to attract proper attention to it from British travelers, scholars and investors.
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