The invention of the self in female travel writings: Isabella Bird, Alexandra David-Néel and Isabelle Eberhardt

Delcol, Anaïs (2025) The invention of the self in female travel writings: Isabella Bird, Alexandra David-Néel and Isabelle Eberhardt. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

The British writer Isabella Bird, the French writer and orientalist Alexandra David-Néel and the Swiss journalist and writer Isabelle Eberhardt all had travel in common. They wandered throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, a period when women were more associated with the home and therefore with immobility. These writers show how nomadism allows them to redefine themselves.

First of all, we will see that the reinvention of identity is done through a departure for elsewhere. Indeed, travelling to a new country (Japan, India, Tibet, Algeria) will offer the three writers the access to new practices, but these practices reflect the complexity of the relationship between the West and the East. That being said, Isabella Bird, Alexandra David Néel and Isabelle Eberhardt, thanks to an intellectual nomadism, break down the West-East binary opposition by questioning it. Indeed, they learn new languages (Arabic and Tibetan), they understand the culture of a different country, they participate in all kinds of local practices, and they even convert to a new religion: Buddhism for Alexandra David-Néel and Sufism for Eberhardt. In other words, they become the other, or rather they become other and show that identity is a process in constant movement.

The three women also challenge the opposition between women and men, shaking up the codes associated with their gender by travelling through spaces considered masculine, dressing as men, existing in the public and intellectual spheres. Isabella Bird was the first woman member of the Royal Geographical Society, Alexandra David-Néel travelled alone for 14 years and became the first European woman to enter Lhasa (a forbidden city at the time), and Isabelle Eberhardt lived her nomadic life under a male and Muslim identity .

But identity is also defined by the narrative. Indeed, we will see that their travel writings contribute to the reinvention of the self and even have a therapeutic effect. Whether through travel writings, fiction or letters: writing permits the performative to exist. Indeed, for Isabella Bird, Alexandra David-Néel and Isabelle Eberhardt, the reinvention of the self is found in the balance between the narrative and the performative, with a need to fix memories, to be one’s own witness to the evolution of the self while existing in the predominantly male public space.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Subjects: H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman; P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN0080 Criticism; P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN0441 Literary History; P Language and Literature > PQ Romance literatures
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Modern Languages and Cultures > French
• Supervisor's Name: Salazar-Ferrer, Dr. Olivier, Fotiade, Dr. Ramona and Gamliel, Dr. Ophira
• Date of Award: 2025
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2025-85435
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 04 Sep 2025 08:17
• Last Modified: 04 Sep 2025 08:19
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.85435
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/85435