Travelling Through Time: Tracing the Arrival of Modernity in German-Speaking Women’s Travel Literature on the Orient between 1840 and 1945

Travelling Through Time discusses accounts of the “Orient,” questions of identity formation through interactions with the “Other,” and the significance of the global spread of technological advances for these questions. Travel writing by both male and female authors has been a topic of interest for many scholars. However, little has been done to study women's travel accounts and search for identity in the context of a rapidly modernizing world from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Consequently, by tracing a series of tropes in the works of Ida Hahn-Hahn, Louise Mühlbach, and Annemarie Schwarzenbach, this thesis observes the arrival of modernity in the Orient through a century of rapid technological development. These developments became particularly felt in travel, which profited from new means of transport – means that play a significant role in the narratives of the three authors this thesis focuses on. I argue that these women’s reflections on the Orient are fundamentally shaped by considerations of historical change which derive their urgency from the context of modernity. Providing three case studies, this dissertation delineates how the discussed authors hope to find in the visited regions the presence of something which connects to Europe’s origin and past, in order to provide lessons for a new beginning (see the chapter on Hahn-Hahn); traces of glorious and mysterious antiquity, which could serve as an alternative to contemporary Europe (see the chapter on Mühlbach); and a connection with traditional life rhythms in the moment of their disappearance (see the chapter on Schwarzenbach). While the writers’ relationship to their homeland is often ambiguous, I argue that it is important to note the ways in which a sense of (imagined) belonging informs their writing and perceptions of the foreign culture. Part of the ambiguity observed here is connected to topics surrounding gender, as travel for these women represents an opportunity to escape social constraints at home. Ultimately, this dissertation demonstrates that all three women return from their travels with changed perspectives not only of the visited cultures but also of their own, and an awareness for the contingency of identity at the advent of modernity.

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