hfghghdfg

LOS RELATOS DE MUJERES VIAJERAS
¿UNA MIRADA CRÍTICA SOBRE EL COLONIALISMO?
ISABELLE EBERHARDT (1877-1904)
M. DOLORS GARCIA-RAMON1
ABEL ALBET I MAS2

Resumen: Edward Said planteó acertadamente en 1978 que Oriente no existe sino que es una
construcción europea que elabora una imagen del Otro coloque no sólo define a ese Otro sino que
le permite identificarse como Occidental. Pero el esquemade Said obvia la heterogeneidad del
discurso colonial y oculta el rol jugado por las mujeres en el proceso de colonización. En cambio
los recientes estudios feministas sobre colonialismo se centran en el papel que las mujeres
europeas jugaron en el proceso colonial y exploran su complicidad tanto con el colonialismo
como con su oposición a éste. La vida y obra de Isabelle Eberhardt que estuvoviajando por
nuestro Oriente más próximo, el Norte de Africa, ofrecen nuevas perspectivas en torno al papel
ambivalente de las mujeres en el proceso colonial y cuestionan abiertamente la noción de simple
Alteridad tal y como es presentada en la obra de Said.
Palabras clave: Discurso colonial, relato de viaje, colonialismo, orientalismo y género, estudios
feministas, alteridad, IsabelleEberhardt.
Abstract: WOMEN’S TRAVEL NARRATIVES. A CRITICAL GAZE ON COLONIALISM? ISABELLE
EBERHARDT (1877-1904) – The aim of this paper is to analyse the life and works of a woman
travel writer, Isabelle Eberhardt and to set it within the context of the recent scholarship related to
travel narrative, orientalism and gender. In effect, in his important work on orientalism, Said
argued that theOrient is an European construct serving an image of the Other that not only
defines the Other but also identifies the self as Western. Nevertheless, Said’s contribution neglects
the heterogenity of colonial discourse and conceals the roles played by women in the colonization
process as well as in its representation. On the contrary, recent feminist scholarship focus on the
role of European women ascultural agents in the formation of imperial relations and explores
women’s complicity with colonialism as well as their resistance to it. But most of the research on
women travellers has been carried out by English-speaking authors on English-speaking women
travellers. This paper, then, tries to contribute to this field by recovering a marginal voice coming
from a different place: IsabelleEberhardt was born in Geneva (although she was of Russian
origin), travelled to Tunisia and Algeria and wrote in French. The complex dynamics of complicity
1

2

Catedrática de Análisis Geográfico Regional; Departament de Geografia, Universitat Autònoma de
Barcelona; 08193 Bellaterra (España).
Tel.: 34-935811514; Fax.: 34-935812001; E-mail: ilge8@cc.uab.es
Profesor Titular de GeografíaHumana; Departament de Geografia, Universitat Autònoma de
Barcelona; 08193 Bellaterra (España).
Tel.: 34-935811577; Fax: 34-935812001; E-mail: abel.albet@uab.es

and resistance in Western women is very clear in the case of Isabelle. On one hand, she has the
reputation of being “an enemy of France” but, on the other, she is central to the colonial
encounter. Isabelle transgresses European normsof gender and civilization by dressing as an Arab
and embracing Islam, but her self-exploration was made possible by French colonial power, and
in the end, she became a player in French imperial politics. The ambivalence towards colonialism
that we can observe in Isabelle’s life and works (as in many other women travellers) openly
questions the notion of simple Otherness as presented inSaid’s work. The intersection of colonial
and gender discourses involves a shifting subject positioning, whereby Western women can
simultaneously constitute centre and periphery, identity and alterity. Therefore, this paper
hopefully shows that for the study of colonialism it is important to focus on narratives coming
from the margins as they provide new perspectives which can destabilize...