WOMEN IN BRITISH TRAVEL WRITING - Altered Space and Meaning in the Example of Istanbul

The novelty, movement, and transformative nature inherent in the act of traveling also lead to the tendency of travel writers to adopt an original perspective during their travel/writing activities. In the examination of the travel writing examples to be discussed in this book, the focus will be on British women travelers and 18th and 19th century Istanbul. In the transformative nature of the act of traveling, British women travelers who went beyond the century they lived in and experienced the act of writing developed their own perspectives during their overseas travels, often with the help of a male family member, under the shadow of a male-dominated, colonial society. As a result, they wrote about their own inner adventures as the other of men in Istanbul, which was seen as the capital and symbol of the Ottoman society that was positioned as the oriental other at that time. The period between the 18th century and the beginning of the 20th century, which is specifically selected in this book, starts with Lady Mary Montagu, the first writer to analyze the Ottoman Empire in English literature, and ends with Grace Ellison, one of the significant 20th century feminist journalists and writers. Thus, it will be seen through theories of space how British women travel writers wrote about the image of the east with an alternative language, specifically in the Ottoman capital of Istanbul.