Revisiting Italy

<p>With the rise of mass tourism Italy became increasingly accessible to Victorian women travellers not only as a locus of artistic culture but also as a site of political enquiry. Despite being outwardly denied a political voice in Britain many female tourists were conspicuous in their commitment to the Italian campaign for national independence or Risorgimento (1815–61). <i>Revisiting Italy</i> brings several previously unexamined travel accounts by women to light during a decisive period in this political campaign.<i> </i></p><p>Revealing the wider currency of the Risorgimento in British literature Butler situates once-popular but now-marginalized writers: Clotilda Stisted Janet Robertson Mary Pasqualino Selina Bunbury Margaret Dunbar and Frances Minto Elliot alongside more prominent figures: the Shelley-Byron circle the Brownings Florence Nightingale and the Kemble sisters. Going beyond the travel book she analyses a variety of forms of travel writing including unpublished letters privately printed accounts and periodical serials.</p><p>Revisiting Italy focuses on the convergence of political advocacy gender ideologies national identity and literary authority in women’s travel writing. Whether promoting nationalism through a maternal lens politicizing the pilgrimage motif or reviving gothic representations of a revolutionary Italy it identifies shared touristic discourses as temporally contingent shaped by commercial pressures and the volatile political climate at home and abroad.</p>