Abstract
My paper offers a descriptive analysis of Janet Schaw’s Journal of a Lady of Quality, which is a narrative of her eventful, and often perilous seven week oceanic journey from Scotland to the West Indies, her sojourn in Antigua, and her subsequent residency in North Carolina, and Portugal, between the years of 1774-1776. Situating Schaw within the context of increased women’s travels in the eighteenth century, my paper examines Schaw’s assertions of “truth” claims and authority in her ethnographic passages. I show how her distinctively female voice transcribes transatlantic experiences and underscores received opinions on gender, class, and race, with particular focus on those passages where her stated feminine empathy exposes class and racial prejudices. My paper also explores the emerging identity of the female cosmopolitan subject and interrogates the degree to which cosmopolitanism was imbricated with commerce in this period of imperialist expansion. My interest in Janet Schaw’s Journal of a Lady of Quality lies both in its value as a document of historiographic significance, as well as in the way the text reveals certain structures, tropes, and fissures in the collective imaginary of early global capitalism, especially reflective of a gendered, bourgeoise sensibility.
Presenters
Nira Gupta-CasaleAssociate Professor, English, Kean University, New Jersey, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2025 Special Focus—Oceanic Journeys: Multicultural Approaches in the Humanities
KEYWORDS
Cosmopolitanism, Transatlantic Travels, Gender, Oceanic Journey, Race, Imperialism
