somayeh Abbasi; Somayeh Khanipour
Abstract
Historical–literary studies of the Qajar era—especially travelogues—have often settled for superficial, stereotypical depictions of women and neglected deeper discursive ...
Read More
Historical–literary studies of the Qajar era—especially travelogues—have often settled for superficial, stereotypical depictions of women and neglected deeper discursive analysis. Aiming to fill this analytical gap, the present study examines the process of “othering” of Iranian and Western women in these texts and asks how the representation of women in travelogues, at the intersection of patriarchal and colonial discourses, has led to the effacement or redefinition of female subjectivity. Using a qualitative–critical analysis of a corpus of Iranian and Western travelogues, and drawing on an intertwined theoretical framework of Paul Ricoeur’s narrative identity, Michel Foucault’s power/knowledge, and Homi Bhabha’s concepts of double representation and the third space, the study’s preliminary data indicate that images of women are not neutrally rendered or derived from social realities; rather, they are ideological constructions formed at the boundary between internal patriarchal and external Orientalist discourses, ultimately resulting in the erasure or distortion of female subjectivity. Deeper findings show that the discourse of power has been exercised upon the Iranian female body; yet, paradoxically, travelogues also reflect traces of women’s agency and resistance in political, economic, and social arenas. These forms of agency are analyzable within the “third space” and contribute to redefining female identity in the face of stereotypes.
