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IMAGES OF THE ORIENT IN THE TRAVEL WRITINGS OF IDA PFEIFFER AND
IDA HAHN-HAHN

BY

Shubhangi Dabak

A DISSERTATION
Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Department of Linguistics and Languages

1999

ABSTRACT

IMAGES OF THE ORIENT IN THE TRAVEL WRITINGS OF IDA PFEIFFER AND
IDA HAHN-HAHN

BY

Shubhangi Dabak

The focus of this dissertation is the depiction of the Orient in
the travel writings of Ida Hahn-Hahn and Ida Pfeiffer. As women
travel writers in nineteenth century Germany, they traveled to
far away places and broke away from their gender roles.

Pfeiffer and Hahn-Hahn recognized their gender marginality in
the patriarchal German society. Their awareness of this
marginality offered them a chance to recognize the cultural
marginality of the non-European Other vis—a—vis Western society.
However, abandoning their marginalized gender roles, they
embraced their cultural roles as superior Europeans. Belief in
their superiority led to a belief in the inferiority of the non-
Europeans. Contrary to the assertions made by many feminist
critics, the depiction of the Orient in the travel writings of
Hahn-Hahn and Pfeiffer is colonial in nature. The depiction of
the Oriental women by Hahn-Hahn and Pfeiffer shows that the
assumption of women as an already constituted and coherent group

is problematic.

To the memory of my grandmother Sushila Soman (1918-1999)

iii

~I-

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art

‘5‘

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank my advisor Prof. George F. Peters

who not only offered helpful suggestions but also support and

encouragement to keep me going. I also want to express my

appreciation to Prof. Elizabeth Mittman and Prof. Patrick

McConeghy, for their insightful comments.

I am grateful to my friends and family, especially my
parents Sarita and Chandrashekhar Dabak, who never doubted that

I should complete this project. I could not have come this far

without the loving support of my husband Parag, who bore with me

through thick and thin. None of the languages that I have

learned over the years have adequate words to thank him.

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Theoretical Framework
A. Introduction
B. Women and/as the ‘Other’
C. Feminism and Colonial Discourse
D. Orientalism and Its Criticism
E. Travel Writing in Nineteenth Century
F. Women Travel Writers in the Nineteenth Century

II. Marginalization of Women in Nineteenth Century German
Society

A. Life of Women in Nineteenth Century German
Society

1. Religion and Gender Role Division

2. From Enlightenment to Industrialization
a. Polarization of Gender Roles
b. Effects of Industrialization
c. Changes in the Bourgeois Ideal

3. Education of Women in the Nineteenth
Century

a. Various Opinions About Women’s
Education

b. Educational and Professional
Possibilities

4. Literary Socialization of Women
B. The Biography of Ida Hahn-Hahn-Hahn—Hahn-Hahn
C. The Biography of Ida Pfeiffer
D. Conclusion

III. An Analysis of Ida Pfeiffer's Travel Writing

12

20

25

35

35

35

37

37

39

42

44

44

46

48

55

59

65

67

A. Introduction

1.The Autobiographical Approach to Ida
Pfeiffer’s Travel Writing

2.Non-autobiographical Approaches To Women’s
Travel Writing

B. Self-representation in Pfeiffer’s Travel Writing
1.Motives For Travel
2.Gender Ambiguity
a. Entering the Male domain
(l)Objectivity
(2)Crossing the Gender Line
(3)Authoritative Narrative Figure
b. Stepping Back to the Female Domain
(1)Genre of Diary
(2)Topos of Modesty
(3)Domestic Issues
3.Conclusion
C. Representation of the Other
1. Moral Superiority
2. Description of Women
D. Conclusion
IV. An Analysis of Ida Hahn-Hahn's Travel Writings
A. Introduction

B. Self-representation in Hahn-Hahn's
Orientalische Briefe

 

1. Motives For Travel
2. Genre of Letters

3. Authoritative Narrative Figure

vi

67

67

7O

73

73

77

79

80

82

85

87

88

9O

94

96

98

99

104

109

112

112

115

116

121

128

4. Conclusion
C. Representation of the Other
1. Description of the Orient
2. Description of the Non-Europeans
3. Description of Women
D. Conclusion
V. Conclusion

Bibliography

vii

131

134

135

141

147

156

159

169

 

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Chapter I
Theoretical Framework
A. Introduction

A study of travel writing tells as much about the cultural
framework of the land of the traveler as about the land visited.
Travel writing is one of the forms of documentation of
confrontation between two cultures or, to use Derrida’s term, of
“anthropological war,” which he describes as “the essential
confrontation that opens communication between peoples and
cultures, even when that communication is not practiced under
the banner of colonial or military oppression” (107). This
confrontation produces writing in various forms, such as
journalism, ethnographic description, imaginative literature or
travel writing. Derrida argues that such writing involves
"violence of letter.” It is a violence “of difference, of
classification, and of the system of appellations" (107).

Travel writing shows the ways in which one culture interprets,
represents and also subordinates another. Travel writing can be
investigated to reveal the culturally determined subjectivity of
the traveler as well as to gain information about the countries
visited.

European travel literature reveals the West's perspective
on the culturally and ethnically different. Reading it from the
position of a woman from a non-European developing country, I am
more specifically interested in the ways in which Western women
experienced foreign cultures, especially the Middle East. Could

1

women, traditionally identified as the Other within European
society, identify themselves with the non-European Other, with
Middle Eastern women, with people outside the dominant European
culture? Did they formulate their own feminine notion of the
Other different from the male authors or was their experience
subsumed by notions of European superiority? What is the
specificity of women’s travel writing and what are the features
they shared with male writers? These are some of the questions
that I try to answer in this dissertation.

My focus is on the two writers Ida Hahn-Hahn (1805-1880)
and Ida Pfeiffer (1797-1858). I will discuss the travel works

Orientalische Briefe (1844) by Hahn-Hahn and Reise einer

 

Wienerin ins Heilige Land (1833) as well as Eine Frauenfahrt um

 

die Welt (1850) by Ida Pfeiffer. Pfeiffer and Hahn-Hahn
combined explorations of the world with self—exploration. Their
travel writing shows that their gender as well as their identity
as white Europeans played a role in the perception of their own
place in the social hierarchy of nineteenth-century Germany.
Their gender placed them in a position inferior to the men in
the patriarchal society at home. This fact, however, did not
deter them from viewing the non—Europeans as inferiors when they
were away from home. Their depiction of the Other is as

Eurocentric as that of the male writers.

B. Women and/as the ‘Other'

The model of the power relationship between a man and a
woman that assigned the superior position to the man has also
been used by European travel writers to define the power
relationship between Europeans and non-Europeans.l In this
model non-Europeans and women occupy the same symbolic space
that is inferior to the Western European male. Both are passive
and childlike, ready to be governed. Both are seen as part of
nature, not culture, whereas the Western man is a rational
subject having control over nature.

During the period of the Enlightenment the image of the
Other as ‘wild’ is replaced by the less threatening image of the
“noble savage.” The non-Europeans are idealized as people
living in the earlier stages of mankind who are innocent and
naive. They are depicted in such a way that they seem to be
stuck in a permanent stage of childhood. Women are described in
a similar way as childlike and naive. In constructing the
identity of the non-Europeans and women as children who need to
be controlled, the European man designates himself the role of
the governor.

In her discussion about the similarities between images of

Other and women in the Enlightenment, Sigrid Weigel points out

 

1 Sigrid Weigel gives examples of travel writers, such as
Charles-Marie de La Condamine and Bougainville, who described
the non-Europeans as childlike, primitive and inferior to the
European man (174-75). The images that they used to describe
the non-Europeans are similar to the images used by philosophers
to describe women in the eighteenth- and nineteenth century (see
chapter 2).

3

 

how the Western man had a superior position both to Europe’s
culturally Other and to women within European society:

Die Wilden in der Ferne bilden den Ort des Fremden, zu dem

sich der europaische Mensch in eine historische Beziehung

setzt, er besetzt dabei die Position des Fortschritts.

Die Frau in der Nahe bildet den Ort des Anderen, zu dem

sich der Mensch = Mann in eine moralisch-geistige

Beziehung setzt, wobei er die Position des h6hergestellten

vernfinftigen Subjekts einnimmt. (179)

The place that is assigned to non-Europeans and women in
relation to the Western man is not identical. The non-Europeans
are considered historically backward compared to the Western
man, whereas women are morally inferior to him. However, both
non-European Other and women are defined through their relation
to the ‘Civilized’ European man.

These definitions have more to do with the wishes and
projections of the Western man than the real existence of the
Other and women. They are defined to secure a superior position
for the Western man. Weigel points out that “diese ganze
Inanspruchsnahme des Fremden fUr die Stabilisierung des Eigenen
wiederholt sich in der Konzeptualisierung der Frau als anderes
Geschlecht, vor allem im Diskurs fiber ihre Sexualitat, die noch
von Sigmund Freud als ‘schwarzer Kontinent’ bezeichnet wird"
(175). When Sigmund Freud described women as ‘the dark
continent’ he expressed a number of prevalent associations
between femininity and the colonized Other. There was an

element of mystique and danger associated with women as well as

the Other. Both were ‘incomprehensible’ and ‘undiscovered,’

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i.e. yet to be conquered and waiting to be systematized in the
body of knowledge created by the European man.2

One of the West’s images of the Other has been the Orient.
The Orient and women are defined by the Western man not as they
are, but as he wants them to be. Lewis describes this
similarity between the Orient and women:

Just as the Orient is constructed into a series of signs
whose significance lies more in their relationship to the
Occident’s self-image than in any truth about the Orient,
so has it been argued that the European paradigm of sexual
difference constructs women as objects of knowledge (the
‘other within’) which secure definitions of superior
masculinity rather than revealing any truth about women.
(18)

As Said tries to show, European culture gained in strength and
identity by setting itself off against the Orient as a sort of
surrogate and even underground self. European discourse of
sexual differences establishes the identity of Western man by
objectifying woman and retaining the subject position for the
man. The woman is thus marginalized or orientalized and the
Orient is sexualized. Pelz explains this relation between the
Orient and woman:

Durch eine enge und merkwurdig fortdauernde Assoziation
von Orient und Sex (verschleierte estliche Braut,
unerforschlicher Orient) erfahren der Orient wie die
europaische Frau als zwei kontrastierende Bilder und
integrale Teile der europaischen Zivilisation ein
ahnliches Diskursschicksal. Weder ‘der Orient’ noch ‘die
Europaerin’ ist einfach da und natfirlich gegeben, noch
sind beide rein imaginativ. Der Orientalismus ist
genausowenig wie die imaginierte Weiblichkeit ein
wahrheitsgemafier Diskurs fiber Orient und Frau, Vielmehr
bilden beide ein sich gegenseitig befruchtendes und

 

2 In Germany, attitudes toward women is also greatly influenced

by religious teachings, notably Luther. For more on this see

the section on religion and gender role division in chapter 2.
5

stabilisierendes mythisches System, das der europaisch-
mannlichen Macht und freien Verffigungsgewalt fiber die
orientalisierte Europaerin und fiber den weiblichen Orient
seinen Ausdruck verleiht. (Reisen in die eigene Fremde
171)

The Western woman is thus feminized as the symbolic inferior
Other at home. Both women and non-Europeans are defined as
binary opposites of the white European male. This methodology
of opposition equates ‘women’ to the ‘non-European Others' and
suggests that opposition to colonialism could come from a

coalition of Western women and the non-European Other.

C. Feminism and Colonial Discourse

The metaphor of man as colonizer and woman as colonized is
used by many feminists to portray women’s oppression. It has
been argued that the “economic dependence, the cultural take-
over, [and] the identification of dignity with resemblance to
the oppressor" (Rowbotham 201) is present in the colonization of
the underdeveloped country as well as the subordination of the
female. According to Marilyn French, just as the colonizer
denies the colonized a voice in their own culture, women in most
cultures “have not been deprived just of a cultural voice, but
even a personal one” (134).

It is true that the space women are assigned by men in a
patriarchal society and the space the colonized Other has Vis-a-
Vis the colonizer are both marginal ones. But referring to the
experiences of the Other just in terms of women’s experiences
omits any knowledge about the colonized Other and thus exhibits

‘white solipsism’ as Laura Donaldson calls it. Such feminism
6

does not take into consideration different factors that form
gender. Instead, it melds all women together into one group
irrespective of their class, caste or social status. Donaldson
further elaborates problems related to the metaphor of the woman
as colonized and man as colonizer. She points out precisely
that such a metaphor

lacks any awareness of gender - - or colonialism, for that

matter - - as a contested field, an overdetermined

sociopolitical grid whose identity points are often
contradictory. Historical colonialism demonstrates the
political as well as theoretical necessity of abandoning
the idea of women’s (and men’s) gender identity as fixed
and coherent. Instead, it imbues us with a conception of
gender as a site of conflicting subjective processes and
makes it impossible to ignore the contradictory social
positioning of white, middle-class women as both colonized
patriarchal objects and colonizing race—privileged

subjects. (6)

Singular and homogeneous categories such as ‘woman’ or the
‘female identity’ or for that matter ‘man’ or ‘male identity’
appear to be essentialist and need to be questioned. The power
relations between white European women and non-European men and
women need to be addressed in order to show that colonialism was
not an exclusively male enterprise. The assumption of women as
an already constituted and coherent group with identical
interests and desires regardless of class, ethnic or racial
locations, implies a notion of gender or sexual difference which
can be applied universally and cross-culturally. But one has to

take into consideration the differences not only between genders

but within genders as well.3

 

3 Still, there might be some interests that women share across
class. For example, European women from different social
7

Some analyses of Western women’s travel literature by
feminist critics suggest that the European women travelers were
against both patriarchy and a masculine imperialism, and that to
be against patriarchy was to be in opposition to imperialism.4
Feminist readings of travel writings by women have prioritized
an analysis of gender over race and colonialism. These analyses
present mainly the feminine aspects of the texts. Mills calls
such analysis a “dominant reading." In a dominant reading of
the text only those elements are emphasized “which form a
cohesive reading, especially with reference to other discursive
structures which are circulating in the society of the time”
(51). While reading women’s travel writing in the nineteenth
century, those elements in the text are emphasized which conform
to the ideal of femininity during nineteenth century. In a
dominant reading of male authors colonial elements are
foregrounded and in women’s writing feminine elements are
foregrounded.

Some feminists go so far as calling all the nineteenth-
century women travelers emancipatory. Lydia Potts writes for
example: “Einen Kampf gegen das Frauenbild ihrer Zeit, fiberhaupt
gegen die Reduzierung aller Frauen auf ein ausschliefiliches
Dasein als Mutter, Haus-und Ehefrau, haben alle Reisendinnen

geffihrt” (36). Sweeping claims are also made about the

 

classes might share a common feeling of superiority toward the
oriental Other that unites them through their Europeanness.

4 See for example Shirley Foster (3-25), Annegret Pelz (Frauen
Literatur Politik 205-218).
8

“openness” of women travelers. In her book about nineteenth

century women travel writers, Across New Worlds, Shirley Foster

 

writes: “With all of them, their eagerness to discover the new
and exciting underlay their undertakings and their openness to
the foreign” (vii).

An analysis of the travel writings by Hahn-Hahn and
Pfeiffer does not support these findings. Rather, it shows that
the two women were colonized patriarchal objects within
nineteenth-century German society, and that once they stepped
outside and entered the non-European world, they too became
colonizing, privileged subjects.

In the travelogues of Hahn-Hahn and Pfeiffer a tension
between their identity as patriarchal objects and their identity
as colonizing subjects is seen. On the one hand, they -—
especially Pfeiffer--are trying to fulfill gender expectations
by choosing to write about topics that were considered
‘feminine’ by the nineteenth century German reading public. On
the other hand, they betray a belief in European superiority
while describing the non-European Other. When they describe the
non-Europeans, the writers are no longer the objects of a
Western patriarchal gaze. Instead, they are turning the non-
Europeans into objects of their gaze. They had access to
places, such as harems and slave markets, where the European men
could not go. They could interpret and represent the ‘Veiled
world of harem’ for the European society. This gives them
access to the power, which men in the society at home had over

9

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them. They marginalize the non-European people in order to
consolidate their hold on the temporarily gained power.

The symbolic position of the non—European Other outside
the dominant Western culture and the position of Western women
within patriarchal Western society is similar. One might expect
the Western women to see these people as their mirror images,
identify with them and show solidarity with them. But the women
do not refer to their experiences of the Other in terms of their
own experiences as marginalized women. The position of
authority in the colonial discourse is not necessarily related
to the gender of the subject. The place of women in the
patriarchal society as subordinate objects in relation to men
does not exclude them from the powerful subject position in
colonial discourse. Brigitte Kossek points out this changing
relation between power and gender:

Die Bedeutung von Macht und Unterordung verschiebt sich,

je nachdem mit welcher Person, mit welcher sozialen Gruppe

und auf welche Weise sie in Beziehung stehen. Die

verschiedenen Beziehungskonstellationen im Machtgewebe
implizieren, daB Macht und Unterordung keine sich
gegenseitig ausschlieBenden Positionen von Frauen
darstellen, sondern sich in einem Subjekt vereinen
konnen.(14)

The nineteenth century women travel writers are aware of
the images of women as created by male writers. They examine,
assimilate and transcend these negative portrayals and achieve
literary autonomy. But they achieve this autonomy by creating

images of the non-European people that are as stereotypical as

the images of women created by male authors.

10

The assumption in some feminist criticism that women’s
travel writing shares more features with other female-authored
texts than it shares with male—authored texts is not necessarily
true. Women’s texts are taken to be self—evidently different
from men’s. In order to support these assumptions emphasis is
on the shared elements in women’s texts. Such a reading of the
texts emphasizes only gender as the main issue and reduces the
complexity of the texts to only one parameter, namely, gender.
But as Mills points out, women’s writing has multiple
parameters:

Women's travel writing cannot be analyzed as if the texts

originated from one determining factor, such as the

author, 'reality', imperialism or femininity, but rather
that the texts are produced in the interaction and

clashing of a variety of constraining factors. Texts are
heterogeneous, made up of various elements in response to
different constraints on the writing process. (69)

Thus, the complexity of a text depends on the complexity of the
authorial identity. However, taking into consideration the
constraints on nineteenth century women in general (see chapter
2) and women travel writers in particular, it does not come as a
surprise that most scholars working on the subject of women
travel writers represent them only as exceptional individuals
struggling to break away from the social conventions of their
period. But expanding the discussion beyond the issue of gender
to discussion of the colonial discourse present in the women’s
travel writings reveals greater complexity to these writings

than earlier assumed.

11

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In fact, abandoning their gender roles, the traveling
women took on their racial ones. These women were alienated at
home because of their gender. However, this alienation did not
necessarily make them either anti-imperialist or empathetic
toward women of the countries they visited. Belief in their
racial superiority was coupled with a belief in the inferiority
of the non-European people. This was evident in the depiction
of the Other in their travel writing. This makes their travel
writing as much a part of colonial discourse as the travel
writing of their male counterparts. To understand the colonial
discourse in travel writing I will now briefly discuss

Orientalism and its criticism.

D. Orientalism and Its Criticism

The study of colonial discourse began with Edward Said's

pioneering book Orientalism in 1978, and authors such as Homi

 

Bhabha, Gayatri Chakravarti Spivak and Mary Louise Pratt have
further contributed to it. Said’s basic thesis asserts that
Western writers, especially since the eighteenth century, have
constructed the Orient as the Other. The Orient is not a free
subject of thought or action. Western writers have tried to
control the Orient by fixing it in the position of an object and
retained the powerful position of the subject for themselves.
Said calls this Western style of dominating, restructuring
or having authority over the Orient “Orientalism." He defines

Orientalism as a style of thought based upon the distinction

12

between Orient and Occident. Orientalism establishes a set of
polarities in which the Orient is characterized as irrational,
exotic, erotic, despotic and heathen, whereas the West, by
contrast, is rational, familiar, moral, just and Christian.
This binary opposition between Orient and Occident objectifies
the Orient. The process of objectification is "a disciplined
one: it is taught, it has its own societies, periodicals,
traditions, vocabulary, rhetoric, all in basic ways connected to
and supplied by the prevailing cultural and political norms of
the West" (Orientalism 68). Said explains how this
objectification is accomplished by textual means:
Everyone who writes about the Orient must locate himself
Vis-a-vis the Orient; translated into his text, this
location includes the kind of narrative voice he adopts,
the type of structure he builds, the kinds of images,
themes, motifs that circulate in his text - all of which
add up to deliberate ways of addressing the reader,
containing the Orient, and finally, representing it or
speaking in its behalf. (20)
Thus Orientalism is practiced by implementing certain textual
strategies. Such strategies include "generalizations about the
other nation, making valorized statements, fixing these people
in an unchanging past or present tense and making them very much
a textual entity" (Mills 49). Peter Hulme describes similar
textual strategies while defining colonial discourse. He
defines colonial discourse as
an ensemble of linguistically based practices unified by
their common deployment in the management of colonial
relationships . . . . Underlying the idea of colonial
discourse . . . is the presumption that during the
colonial period large parts of the non-European world were
produced for Europe through a discourse that imbricated

sets of questions and assumptions, methods of procedure
and analysis, and kinds of writing and imagery. (2)

13

Just as the Orient is created by Orientalists to serve their own
purpose, images of the non-European world are produced by
colonial powers in colonial discourse.
While describing the tradition of European Orientalism,
Said differentiates between German Orientalism and Anglo-French
Orientalism. The Anglo-French Orientalism was used by England
and France as a smokescreen to cover up their colonial
endeavors, whereas German Orientalism served as a substitute for
real colonies. Said points out that the German Orient was
“almost exclusively a scholarly, or at least a classical,
Orient: it was made the subject of lyrics, fantasies, and even
novels, but it was never actual . . ." (19). The Orient in
German literature was fictional, based on sources, such as
translations of works on the East, for travelogues about the
Orient, or even the Bible. Mustafa Maher reviews the motif of
the Orient in German literature from Klopstock to Goethe and
comes to the conclusion that
. . . keiner der Dichter von Klopstock bis Goethe, die
orientalische Stoffe und Motive behandelten, [kannten] das
Morgenland aus eigenem Erlebnis. Sie schopften ihre
Kenntnisse aus der Bibel, aus den Reisebeschreibungen, den
Ubersetzungen orientalischer Werke und aus den frfiheren
orientalisierenden Werken wie Tassos "Gerusalemme

Liberata" oder Voltaires “Mahomet”. (30)

The Brockhaus Konversations-Lexikon published in 1889

 

defines Orient or “Morgenland,” as it was called during that
time, as "Asien und der nordfistliche Teil Afrikas" (636). But
more than a geographical or political entity, the Orient was a

topos. The Orient was projected as magical and seductive. With

14

its (projected) magic and seductive power, it was a place for an
escape from rationalist European society. Thomas Tilcher
describes the nineteenth century German Orient as a “Traum des
Abendlandes.” He describes how German Orientalism functioned in
nineteenth century Germany:

Nur selten wurde der Orient zunachst als eine

geographische und politische Realitat begriffen; in erster

Linie war er Vielmehr ein Vorstellungsmodell. Als

Inbegriff des Exotischen bezeichnete er vorzugsweise eine

bezaubernd schone, marchenhafte Welt jenseits der

Wirklichkeit. Der Name eroffnete eine Galerie

verffihrerischer Bilder, meist hartnackiger Klischees, die

in der Literatur wie in der Malerei bereitwillig

reproduziert wurden und fortlebten. (1)

Germany did not have any direct nationalist economic
interest in the Orient at that time, but it had a kind of
intellectual authority over the Orient. The idea of a European
identity superior in comparison with all the non-European people

and cultures, is present in German Orientalism. In her book

Orientalismus in der deutschen Literatur, Fuchs forms her own

 

definition of Orientalism, which explains how Orientalism
operates in Western literary tradition: "Orientalisierung des
Orients: das Orient-Konzept des westlichen Dichters, das den
realen Orient durch ein von westlicher Seite geschaffenes Denk-
und Vorstellungsschema ersetzt, dient seinem eigennfitzigen
Interesse. Dieses Konzept muBte vor allen Dingen funktionell
und in Harmonie mit westlicher Ideologie sein" (5). Fuchs
agrees with Said in his description of German Orientalism as
intellectual authority over the East. Germany’s relations to

the East were different from France or Britain which had

15

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colonies in the East. Germany did not have any colonies in the
East, but along with England and France it shared an
intellectual authority over the East in its literature, where
the Orient was depicted as exotic, magical and also despotic.
As Fuchs points out :
der deutsche Orientalismus [hatte] mit dem franzosisch-
englischen . . . eine Art intellektueller Autoritat fiber
den Orient gemeinsam . . . Dieser “Orientalismus” zeigt
sich durch eine generalisierende Darstellung des Orients,
die auBerhalb jeglicher Berfihrung mit menschlicher
Wirklichkeit steht, durch eine jahrhundertlange Tradition
geformt und durch westliche Denkkategorien gefarbt ist.(5)
Even though Anglo-French Orientalism and German
Orientalism were functionally different, the way the countries
portrayed the Orient was not different. Germany’s intellectual
superiority over the Orient can be seen in the idea of “Oriental

des otism,” which has its ori in in eighteenth-centur Euro ean
P 9 Y p

thought. This idea was strengthened through Hegel’s Lectures on

 

the Philosophy of History in which Hegel presented his notion of
the absence of subjectivity in the Oriental world. For him, the
Oriental world is ruled by a supremacy of laws whose origin is
external to the subjective consciousness of the individual.
Morality does not originate from the individual conscience, but
exists only by virtue of legislation and authoritarian rule.
Thus despotism is inherent in the Oriental world. Hegel states
that the moral order of the Orient rules "not as the moral
disposition of the Subject, but as the despotism of the
Sovereign" (Lectures on the Philosophy 111—16). He further

concludes that the Oriental world is “imperishable, but it is in

16

its very nature destined to be mixed with other races-~to be
conquered and subjugated” (115). Hegel’s notion of a lack of
subjectivity in the Oriental world creates an image of the
Oriental people as passive and lacking in desire for progress.
His idea of the imperishability of the Oriental world suggests
that the Orient can never be energized from within, but rather
it needs to be conquered and subjugated by the outside world.

It is interesting to note here that Hegel’s attitudes
toward the Orient had little to do with real observation or
study of historical data, but rather with a rational system he
constructed in which philosophical categories had to be
accommodated and arguments built to support them. As Hegel’s
“history” moves toward ever greater expressions of “freedom,” he
needed instances of despotism that showed a more primitive stage
of development and one that would eventually be overcome.

In addition to Hegel’s views, texts such as Herder’s fiber
die Wfirkung der Dichtkunst auf die Sitten der volker in alten

und neuen Zeiten (1778), or Friedrich von Schlegel’s Uber die

 

Sprache und Weisheit der Indier (1808) represented Eurocentric
views. As Nina Berman notes, these texts “dokumentieren die
europaische Expansion durch das deutliche Bemfihen, Sprach-,
Kultur- oder Weltgeschichte in einer Weise zu interpretieren,
welche die Legitimation der Herrschaft Europas fiber den Rest der
Welt ermfiglicht” (31).

In his book The Rhetoric of Empire David Spurr gives

 

various examples from contemporary Western discourse concerning

17

the Third World to show that this discourse simply reformulates
the Hegelian notion of Oriental despotism and classifies the
Third World people as incompatible with development, i.e.,
economic and political modernization. Spurr’s analysis proves
that the language of colonial discourse has survived "beyond the
classic colonial era and it continues to color perceptions of
the non—Western world" (8). Spurr defines colonial discourse as
a space within language that exists both as a series of
historical instances and as a series of rhetorical
functions. Historically speaking, the phrase refers to
the language employed by representatives of the great
colonial powers in establishing authority over vast
regions of Africa, Asia, the South Pacific, and Latin
America during the period of imperial expansion that
reached its height at the end of the nineteenth century.
(8)
Although most critics working in the field of colonial discourse
agree with Said’s basic thesis, it has been criticized for its
undifferentiated presentation of Western discourse on the

Orient.5 Disagreeing with the monolithic nature of Western

discourse about the Orient as presented in Orientalism, Dennis

 

Porter points out that

. Said asserts the unified character of Western
discourse on the Orient over some two millennia . . . . He
is thus led to claim a continuity of representation
between the Greece of Alexander the Great and the United
States of President Jimmy Carter, a claim that seems to
make nonsense of history at the same time as it invokes it
with reference to imperial power/knowledge. (181)

 

5 Said differentiates between the Anglo-French and German
Orientalism. However, no alternatives to Orientalism within the
German or Anglo-French discourse on the Orient are taken into
account.

18

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Within Said’s interpretation, no counter-hegemonic voices are
heard, no alternatives to Orientalism are taken into account.
It seems to suggest that there is no end to Orientalist
representations and the power of Orientalist knowledge will
always exist. But depending on the colonial situation,
portrayal of the Orient by Western authors vacillates between
images of a civilized Orient and the “savage." The colonial
subject in Orientalism, on the other hand, is invariably
unified, intentional and male.

In his article, “Orientalism Reconsidered," Said seems to
be moving in a different direction. He stresses the need to “go
beyond the polarities and binary oppositions . . . in order to
create a new type of analysis of plural, as opposed to single
objects" (23). However, Said does not discuss women’s role as
producers of Orientalist discourse. He represents the
traditional View that women were not involved in the textual
production that constituted Orientalism.

An analysis of the travel writings by Hahn-Hahn and
Pfeiffer demonstrates the independence of ideologies of race and
gender in the colonial discourse of the period. It shows that
they understood themselves as a part of an imperial ideology, a
system of binary opposition that placed them as superior in the
West/East divide of colonialism, but at the same time placed
them as Other and inferior in the gendered divide of European
culture. Nineteenth-century women travel writers had a marginal
position in Western society. The concept of marginality is two-
sided, having both positive and negative aspects. It has the

19

benefits of another unique perspective and the disadvantage of
being excluded from the center. It is the difference between
"working from the margin and being marginalised" (Burkhard 5).
The question that arises is to what extent Western women used
their position of marginality in a positive way to develop a
perspective of the Orient different from their male counterparts
and to what extent they took part in the textual production that

constituted Orientalism.

8. Travel Writing in The Nineteenth Century

A critical study of western travel writing during the
colonial period shows that travel writing was used as a tool for
expansion and the establishment of the colonial rule. The
purpose of travel writing was to motivate public consciousness
in Europe and justify the colonial endeavor. Two important
events in the mid-eighteenth century that influenced the nature
of travel writing were the publication of the Swedish scientist

Carl Linné’s book Systema Naturae (The System of Nature), in

 

which Linné laid out a classificatory system designed to
categorize all plant forms on the planet, known or unknown to
Europeans; the second event was the expedition led by Charles de
la Condamine in 1735 under French leadership to determine the

exact shape of the earth.

The expedition of Charles de la Condamine was a triumph
for the European scientific community since it was evidence of

the power of science to raise Europeans above even the most

20

intense national rivalries. The expedition set out under French
leadership and had the support of British as well as Spanish
authorities. The intense political rivalry between France and
England and the otherwise protectionist policies of Spanish
authorities were set aside to work together for this expedition.

Although the expedition was unsuccessful in the end, it
marked the beginning of a very important trend -- the trend of
international scientific expedition. Later in the eighteenth
century international scientific expeditions became an important
tool of European expansion. These expeditions sought to explore
the interior of lands visited, instead of the borders of the
land, as was the pattern of expeditions in the earlier
centuries. The interior exploration was a search for
commercially exploitable resources, markets and lands to
colonize.

La Condamine’s expedition spawned many travel writings
that became popular in Europe (Pratt 18). Condamine and the
other participants wrote various reports based on their
expedition that were read and translated widely. Scientific
exploration became popular among the general public. The
Europeans learned about other parts of the world through
scientific explorations. Thus Europe’s understanding of the
Other was channeled through scientific expeditions, which were
themselves tools of colonial expansion.

During the same time, Carl Linné created a descriptive
system designed to classify all the plants on the earth

21

according to the characteristics of their reproductive parts.
He claimed that all the plants on the earth could be
incorporated into this single system of distinctions, including
any plants as yet unknown to Europeans. His system was praised
as simple and elegant and it was perceived as making order out
of chaos (Pratt 25). His followers began implementing his
system everywhere to classify plants and insects. The Linnaean
systematizing project popularized scientific inquiry. Such
scientific inquiry became so popular that in the second half of
the eighteenth century natural history played an important part
in travel and travel writings even if the travel was not a
scientific expedition or the traveler a scientist. Ralph—Rainer
Wuthenow describes this transition in the nature of travel
writing in later part of the eighteenth century: "Nach und nach
tritt der Hang zum Fabelhaften und Exotischen zurfick, er weicht
dem Drang nach genauer Beobachtung, nach kontrollierter
empirischer Wahrnehmung" (Reiseliteratur in Aufklarung 161).
Scientific knowledge was brought into the public sphere through
various forms of writings, but narrative travel accounts worked
as the most popular link between the scientific network and a
larger European public.

With the Linnaean systematizing project, the world was
being rearranged according to the European categories of
systematization. Mary Louise Pratt describes this process:

The eighteenth-century classificatory systems created the

task of locating every species on the planet, extracting

it from its particular, arbitrary surroundings,(the

chaos), and placing it in its appropriate spot in the
22

system (the order-book, collection, or garden) with its
new written, secular European name . . . . One by one the
planet's life forms were to be drawn out of the tangled
threads of their life surroundings and rewoven into
European-based patterns of global unity and order. The
(lettered, male, European) eye that held the system could
familiarize ("naturalize") new sites / sights immediately
upon contact, by incorporating them into the language of
the system. (31)

Pratt suggests that such a system could subsume culture and
history into nature. Pratt calls this process of wiping out the
differences between different cultures "global resemanticizing"
(31).

Linné also included people in his classification of

animals. He divided homo sapiens into six varieties:

a. Wild Man. Four-footed, mute, hairy.

b. American. Copper-colored, choleric, erect. Hair black,
straight, thick; nostrils wide; face harsh; beard scanty;
obstinate, content, free. Paints himself with fine red
lines. Regulated by customs.

c. European. Fair, sanguine, brawny; hair yellow, brown,
flowing; eyes blue; gentle, acute, inventive. Covered
with close vestments. Governed by laws.

d. Asiatic. Sooty, melancholy, rigid. hair black; eyes
dark; severe, haughty, covetous. Covered with loose
vestments. Governed by opinions.

e. African. Black, phlegmatic, relaxed. Hair black
frizzled, skin silky; nose flat, lips tumid; crafty,
indolent, negligent. Anoints himself with grease.
Governed by caprice. (Pratt 32)

The last category of ‘monster’ includes dwarf and giants
as well as man-made ‘monsters’ like eunuchs. The myth of
European superiority is clearly expressed in this description.
This systematization shows how the Europeans are described as
civilized and the non-Europeans as their uncivilized
counterparts. The German philosopher G. Forster hoped that the

world would be governed by the ‘civilized’ Europeans:
23

Der sich ausbreitende Handel und die Entdeckungsreisen der
. . . Europaer mfissen notwendig zur Entwicklung einer Welt

beitragen, die sich weiter zivilisieren wird . . . . Die
Nachteile der fiberfeinerten Zivilisation und die Fehler
der Barbarei werden gegeneinander ausgeglichen. Das

Lokale und Spezifische und Individuelle verschwindet dann

im Allgemeinen, und die Vorurteile der Einseitigkeit

werden beseitigt. Das eigentfimlich Europaische wird sich

zur Universalitat lautern. (Das Bild und der Spiegel 27)

European supremacists believed that trade and the
scientific expeditions led by Europeans would ultimately lead to
a more civilized world, in which European principles would
dominate. The idea of European supremacy fits well in the
Enlightenment philosophy, which stressed the need to bring the
world into order (by the Europeans).

The purpose of travel in the nineteenth century was mainly
scientific in nature. The perspective of the scientific
travelers toward the non-European countries was different from
that of the travelers in the Enlightenment. Earlier, people of
the non-European countries were seen as “noble savages.” Their
lifestyle was seen as morally authentic and free from the curse
of work. From a Biblical point of View, work was seen as result
of fall from heaven or from God. In Europe, to lead a life of
idleness was a privilege of the people who were aristocrats or
nobles. But later in the nineteenth century as a result of
industrial revolution, work was seen as valuable, as a sign of
progress. Thus the non—laboring Orient was reinterpreted again.

The non-industrial countries with agricultural economy were seen

as backward and the people in these countries were seen as lazy,

24

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or primitive. In his book Inquiry into the Principles of

 

Political Economy (1770) James Stuart wrote

 

If the soil be vastly rich, situated in a warm climate,

and naturally watered, the productions of the earth will

be almost spontaneous: this will make the inhabitants

lazy. Laziness is the greatest of all obstacles to labour

and industry. Manufactures will never flourish here

It is in climates less favoured by nature, and where

the soil produces to those only who labour, and in

proportion to the industry of every one, where we may

expect to find great multitudes. (53)

The theme of noble savage was replaced by a stereotype of
a primitive man who was lazy as a result of the prosperity of
nature. Industrial countries in the Europe were perceived as
civilized and the other countries were categorized according to
the stage of industrial development in those countries. Travel
writing was done mainly by men who were scientists or
ethnographers. Soldiers, missionaries or businessmen also wrote

about their travel, but the aim of travel writing was still

scientific-methodical description of the land visited.

F. Women Travel Writers in the Nineteenth Century

In composing travel literature, women were entering an
almost exclusively male domain. On the one hand, women were
breaking away from the female gender role by traveling to exotic
places. On the other hand, most still tried to fulfill cultural
expectations which viewed them as weak, passive and dependent.
Thus, the self-representation of women travel writers is often

ambivalent.

25

Women were expected to be selfless, sacrificing themselves
for others (i.e. the man), but traveling was an act of self-
assertion. Women were valuing and foregrounding their own
selves by writing travel narratives. Linda Worley expands on
the tension present in women's travel writing:

A woman attempting to write an account of her travels

would sense that her activities were diametrically opposed

to those of the nineteenth-century ideal . . . the
selfless angel of the house; . . . for not only had she
ventured out of the domestic circle into the wide world,
but the very act of writing -- especially a travel
narrative with its strongly autobiographical element --
might reveal an unwomanly preoccupation with the self.

(40)

In early nineteenth-century Europe, gender roles were even
more polarized than in the previous century and women faced
restrictions in traveling and writing. Karin Hausen notes that
due to the ever increasing differences between domestic and non-
domestic work “the polarization of the ‘character of the sexes’
became increasingly widespread in the bourgeoisie” during the
course of the nineteenth century (70). Philosophers, including
Rousseau, Kant and Fichte, had defined the gender roles and
assigned women the domestic sphere —- a place advocated for
women since the Reformation. Kant wrote: “Der Inhalt der groBen
Wissenschaft des Frauenzimmers ist Vielmehr der Mensch und unter
den Menschen der Mann. Ihre Weltweisheit ist nicht Vernfinfteln
sondern Empfinden"(853). Kant was not the only one to think
that the center of a woman’s universe is man. A description of

the gender roles can be seen in many other popular books at that

time. A nineteenth century German writer, Wilhelm Riehl,

26

explains the “natural destiny of women” in his book Die
Naturgeschichte des Volkes als Grundlage einer deutschen Sozial-
Politik: “Der Staat ist mannlichen Geschlechtes und die
Gesellschaftsgruppen sind generis neutrius: wo bleiben da die
Frauen? Sie sollen bleiben in der ‘Familie’, die ja die
vorwiegende Signatur der Weiblichkeit in ihrem
Geschlechtsartikel aufzeigt" (9). Women’s ‘proper’ role was
prescribed and enforced in the reproductive sphere of home and
family to exclude women from professional life.

This exclusion of women from professional and public life
led to their dependency on men economically, legally and
socially. As a result of this dependency, relatively few women
could travel alone to far away places. Even these few women who
broke away from traditional gender roles were not free from
societal expectations. They had to fit their act of liberation,
i.e., traveling alone, within gender role expectations. As the

following quote from Franz Ludwig Posselts Apodemik oder die

 

Kunst zu reisen (1795) shows, there were certain rules for

 

traveling women:

Die besondere Bestimmung der Frauenzimmer fiberhaupt oder
ihr Beruf ist der Ehestand; dies ist der ihnen von der
Ffirsehung angewiesene Wirkungskreis . . . . Wollen sie
aber die Pflichten dieses ihres ehrwfirdigen Berufs
erffillen, so mfissen sie sich bemfihen, gute Gattinen, gute
Mfitter und gute Vorsteherinnen des Hauswesens zu seyn

. . Die jenigen Frauenzimmer, welche nie heyrathen, kennen
wenigstens an der ersten Erziehung, die Mfitter ihren
Kindern geben, so wie an der Besorgung des Hauswesens
Theil nehmen . . . Wollen demnach Frauenzimmer von ihren
Reisen Nutzen haben, so mfissen sie diese beyden Zwecke
oder ihre zweyfache Bestimmung stets vor Augen haben, und
alles, was darauf Beziehung hat, sehen, horen und sammeln.
(see Ohnesorg 156)

27

Posselts then sets out certain rules for women travelers.
According to these rules, while traveling, women should always
see and hear things, keeping their responsibilities as mothers
and housewives in mind. They should meet only virtuous,
sensible and understanding people and try to be like them.
Women should also try to find other women who are best wives,
mothers or housekeepers and learn from them how to do
housekeeping or how to take care of children.

In spite of these rules and restrictions many women
managed to travel and write about their experiences. A
bibliography completed by Annegret Pelz and Wolfgang Griep
(1995) of women travelers during the time period of 1700 to 1810
shows 600 travelogues by women. However, most of these women
belonged to the upper class and were traveling as wives or
daughters with their families. Improvement in the
transportation systems in the nineteenth century made travel
easier and more accessible to the bourgeoisie. Lydia Potts
describes this change in the trend:

Im 19. Jahrhundert mit seinen umwalzenden Entwicklungen

der Verkehrs-und Kommunikationsmittel, dem Ausbau der

Infrastruktur, der wachsenden Prosperitat des Bfirgertums

wird das Reisen nicht nur innerhalb Europas weniger

geféhrlich, schneller und bequemer. Auch Frauen der neuen

Klasse wird es in zunehmender Zahl moglich, aus freier

Entscheidung, aus eigenem Entschlufi zu reisen. Die Zahl
der ‘Reisendinnen', die sich schriftstellerisch oder

wissenschaftlich betatigen, vervielfacht sich -- was
durchaus im Widerspruch steht zum Frauenideal dieser Zeit.
(13)

Women had traveled to the Middle East earlier as well, but

this was mainly for religious reasons. As early as the third

28

century women were traveling as pilgrims. All this time a
religious trip to the Orient was the only legitimate mode of
travel for women. In the nineteenth century they were traveling
mainly as companions of colonial officers, soldiers or
scientists as well as self-proclaimed travelers. Billie Melman
points out that in addition to the improvements in
transportation, political reasons also contributed to the rise
in travel to this area (12). The military defeat and decline of
Turkey as a European and Mediterranean power was followed by an
era of reforms characterized by westernization and
modernization. This led to opening up of parts of the Middle
East to Western influence.

Another reason related to this change was the policy
inside the Ottoman empire of tolerance towards religious
minorities and non-Ottoman Christians. This policy granted
minorities religious and civil liberties in 1856 (Melman 12).
These changes may not have facilitated female travel to the
Middle East directly but they helped to increase interest and
travel to the Middle East among the general public.

In Germany, people became acquainted with the works of
women traveling to the Orient through translations of
travelogues by British women authors such as Lady Mary Montagu

(Briefe wahrend ihrer Reisen in Europa, Asia und Afrika), Jemima

 

Kindersley (Briefe eines reisenden Frauenzimmers Uber

 

Ostindien), Lady Elizabeth Craven (Eine Reise durch die Krimm

 

29

nach Konstantinopel).6 Later in the mid-nineteenth century,

 

readers had access to texts by German women in addition to these
translations, e.g. Fredrika Bremers, Anna Hafner-Forneris, Maria
Schuber, Regula Engel, Marie Esperance von Schwartz (Pelz,
Reisen durch eigene 167).

These were not the first and only women to go to the
Orient, but their writings become more meaningful to us as
researchers because they were produced in a time period which
was, as Edward Said points out, the beginning of modern
Orientalism. More and more women were traveling to the Orient.
Speaking of the nineteenth century Pelz notes: “In dem MaBe, wie
der Orient sich unter der Perspektive des Orientalismus in ein
domestiziertes und systematisiertes geographisches Feld
verwandelt, rfickt er auch ffir die europaischen Touristinnen als
Reiseland in erreichbare Nahe” (Reisen 169).

Although the number of women travelers increased during
this time, it was still a departure from gender role
expectations for women. The experience of travel outside Europe
as well as writing travelogues were until the eighteenth century
‘male experiences.’ Women travel writers had to negotiate their

way through the field of male dominated travel writing by using

 

6 The original titles of these books in English were: Mary
Montagu: Letters of the Right Honorable Lady Mary Wortley
Montague written during her travels in Europe, Asia and Africa:
which contain, among other curious relations, accounts of the
policy and manner of the Turks: drawn from sources that have
been inaccessible to other travellers (1767); Jamima Kindersley:
Letters from the island of Teneriffe, Brazil, the Cape of Good
Hope, and the East Indies (1777); Lady Elizabeth Craven: A
Journey through the Crimea to Constantinople. In a series of

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3O

various devices. Many times they used pseudonyms or mentioned
in their writings that they were not writing to publish or that
their writing was not worth attention. They tried to justify
their act of traveling. Some women gave health as a reason to
travel, some a propagandist or philanthropic purpose, such as
self betterment through increased knowledge and experience and
the enlightenment of others through communication of this
knowledge. Travel meant escape for many women travelers in the
nineteenth century. They saw this as an opportunity to enjoy
and enrich themselves spiritually and mentally, without the need
for male approval. But the problem was that they could not
state it openly because, as Shirley Foster writes:
Such desire still smacked too much of self-pleasing and
irresponsibility, and so certain strategies were employed
to ‘cover’ it, regarding both the journeys and the
published accounts. Chief of these is the insistence on
‘proper’ purpose, a way of validating the respectability
and usefulness of the activity, especially where this
could be related to current notions of womanhood . . .
They were wary of admitting too much to this enjoyment,
and their accounts are full of pious reminders that they
are essentially doing what God and family are asking of
them. (9)
Even though women writers adjusted their travel writing
according to the gender role expectations of the society,
traveling itself was breaking away from the gender norms. The
next chapter will focus on the situation of women in nineteenth-

century Germany to understand what these gender expectations

were and how they affected the participation of women in various

 

letters to his Serene Highness the Margrave of BrandenbourgL
Aspach and Bareith (1989)

 

 

31

fields of life. Formulating this general background will help
me situate the position of traveling women, especially the two

women I am focusing on -- Ida Pfeiffer and Ida Hahn-Hahn -- in

German society.

32

Chapter II
Marginalization of‘Women in Nineteenth-Century German
Society

Before turning to the discussion of the representation of
non-Europeans, especially women, by Ida Pfeiffer and Ida Hahn-
Hahn, we should first look at the position of women in
nineteenth-century German society and the ideas about women’s
nature that Hahn-Hahn and Pfeiffer might have experienced and
internalized. A discussion of the social life of women in
nineteenth-century Germany will show that women were
marginalized in this society. It will also throw light on the
self-conception of Hahn-Hahn and Pfeiffer. The biographical
facts about Ida Hahn-Hahn and Ida Pfeiffer will help us locate
their position within the margins in which most women of the
time were forced to live.

Speaking about the concept of marginality, Joeres and
Burkhard assert that marginality has both positive and negative
connotations. It has the disadvantages of being shut out of the
center, but it also has the benefits of other unique
perspectives. Joeres and Burkhard point out that the paradox of
marginality lies in “the passive assignation to the fringes and
the use of that position to present other perspectives” (Out of
Line 5). This paradox implies that “one can be simultaneously
disabled and enabled by the same signifier of status” (Bulbeck
10). For Hahn-Hahn and Pfeiffer, marginality meant confinement
to the private sphere, which was assigned to the female gender.

33

It meant exclusion from educational and professional
opportunities. However, the marginalization of Hahn-Hahn and
Pfeiffer provided them with an opportunity to have insight into
the marginalization of non-European cultures vis-a—vis European
culture. It gave them access to places, such as the harem, and
offered them a chance to identify as marginalized women more
significantly than as members of European hegemony. But did
they remain in the margins or did they try to move toward the
center of society that was occupied by men? What strategies did
they use if they tried to move to the center and how did these
strategies affect their travel writing? These are some of the
questions that will be answered in this and the following
chapters.

The social life of German women in the nineteenth century
is a vast topic and thus I will only focus on those areas that
are most relevant to the lives of Hahn-Hahn and Pfeiffer. Ida
Pfeiffer was born in 1797 and Ida Hahn-Hahn in 1805. All of

their travel writing, except Meine zweite Weltreise (1856) and

 

Die Reise nach Madagaskar (published in 1861 posthumously), was

 

done in the first half of the nineteenth century. Thus I will
limit the discussion to the first half of the nineteenth
century. I will deal with women from middle class and
aristocratic families, since Pfeiffer and Hahn-Hahn belonged to

these social classes respectively.

34

A. Life of Women in Nineteenth Century German Society
1. Religion and Gender Role Division

Compared with other European countries such as France or
England, the women's liberation movement in Germany started
later, not until the second half of the nineteenth century. The
failed revolution of 1848 gave women an opportunity to step out
of the family and participate in public life. But in the first
half of the nineteenth century, women were still largely
confined to their roles as mother and housewife.

The origin of gender role division can be traced back to
the Bible. According to this division, the man is the
breadwinner, working outside the home, and women is the mother
as well as the housewife working within the home. As described
in the Christian religion, Eve was created by God from Adam's
rib. This was interpreted by theologists in the Middle Ages,
such as Thomas Aquinus, as a sign of inferiority of women.
Because of Eve’s responsibility for the fall, she was morally
inferior to man.7 The perception of women in Germany was
greatly influenced by religious teachings, notably those of
Martin Luther during the Reformation period in the sixteenth
century. Luther did not break sharply with tradition in his
ideas about women. For him, women and men were spiritually
equal, but in every other respect, women were to be subordinate

to men. Luther championed marriage as the proper state for all

 

7 For more on the perception of woman in Medieval theology, see
McClaughlin 213-66.
35

individuals, but particularly for women for whom marriage was

the highest calling. In his sermon Vom ehelichen Leben, Luther

 

advises men not to look down upon tasks regarding child care.
However, he emphasizes the importance of woman’s duties as a
mother and a wife: “Also soll auch das Weib in seinen Werken
denken, wenn sie das Kind safiget, wieget, badet und andere Werke
in ihm tut und wenn sie sonst arbeitet und ihrem Mann hilft und
gehorsam ist. Es sind alles eitel goldene, edele Werk.” (35)
For a woman facing death during childbirth he has following
advice:
Stirbst du darfiber, so fahr hin, wohl dir, denn du
stirbest eigentlich im edlen Werk und Gehorsam Gottes.
Ja, wenn du nicht ein Weib warest, so solltest du jetzt
allein um dieses Werks willen wfinschen, daB du ein Weib
warest, und so k6stlich in Gottes Werk und Willen Not
leiden und sterben. Denn hier ist Gottes Wort, das dich
also geschaffen, solche Not in dir gepflanzet hat. (36)
Luther argues that infertile women are weak and unhealthy,
whereas fertile women are healthy and pure. He thinks: “Ob sie

[die fruchtbaren Weiber] sich aber auch mfide und zuletzt

tottragen, das schadet nicht, laB sie sich nur tottragen, sie

sind drum da. Es ist besser, kurz gesund denn lange ungesund
leben” (41). Luther was not the first to differentiate between
male and female gender roles. However, his influence on future

generations in German society was certainly determinate.8 His
ideas about the ‘proper’ role of women influenced the perception

about women for centuries to come. Taking into consideration

 

8 The issue of women and Reformation is further discussed in
Lorenz 7-35, Wiesner (Luther and Women) 295-308, also Wiesner
(Women's Response to The Reformation) 148—171.

36

this age-old tradition of gender role division, Annette Kuhn
rightly points out that the sexual stereotypes of the late
eighteenth century were only the latest formulation of the
previously prescribed roles for women (42). Even during the
Enlightenment in the eighteenth century, when all human beings
were supposed to be equal and reason was supposed to reign, the

unequal gender role division did not lose its importance.

2. From Enlightenment to Industrialization
a. Polarization of Gender Roles
During the eighteenth century the feudal system was waning in
influence and the newly emerging bourgeois class was gaining
power by controlling trade and capital. The family was no
longer a self-sufficient unit producing and consuming goods for
itself. It ceased to be the center of production or power.
Professional life was moving outside the family, and thus the
family became a private sphere dissociated from public life.
With changes in the family structure the division between the
public and private spheres became clearer during the
Enlightenment. Speaking of these changes in the family
structure in the eighteenth century, Rolf Grimminger notes:
Die Familie wird im selben Ausmafi privatisiert, in dem sie
ihre politische Funktion verliert, Geburtsstatte
standischer Herrschaft zu sein, und ihre 6konomische
Funktion aufgeben muB, produktive Arbeit zu leisten. Sie
verwandelt sich zur ‘Kernfamilie’. . . Erwerbs -und
Familienleben sind ‘dissoziiert’, und dies kann als das

wesentliche Kennzeichen der modern-privaten Kernfamilie
fiberhaupt gelten. (92—93)

37

The changes in the family structure emphasized the role of
women in the family. Enlightenment philosophy defined the human
being as born free and equal. However, in reality, this freedom
and equality were awarded only to men. Woman’s task was to be a
good mother and a housewife “die ihrem arbeitenden Gatten den
Schweis der Tagelast von seiner Stirn trocknet, die ihm Rosen
auf die mfihsamen Pfade des Lebens streut, und Hand in Hand, ihn
freundlich durch die Dornen desselben hindurchleitet . . .”
(Grimmiger 96). Andrea von Dfilmen describes how women were
restricted more and more to the home during the Enlightenment:

Mit der Verlagerung der mannlichen Geschafte aus dem Haus

in einen mehr Offentlichen Bereich geht auch die gewisse

Ausgeglichenheit in der Wertschatzung der weiblichen und

mannlichen Rolle verloren. Immer nachdrficklicher werden

die Frauen in Grenzen verwiesen, die ihnen ein

Offentliches, gleichberechtigtes Leben verbieten.

Gleichzeitig wird die traditionelle, vorwiegend

theologisch legitimierte Unterordung des “zweiten

Geschlechts" gerade von den Spataufklarern neu begrfindet

und befestigt. Aus ihrer physischen und psychischen

Schwache leiten diese Manner ab, daB die Frau “nie ohne

eine hausliche Obrigkeit” sein dfirfte. Ihr Geist, der nie

das Ganze fibersehen, den Zusammenhang von Ideen erfassen
kann, benotige selbst bei den hauslichen Geschaften die

Ffihrung und Aufsicht des Mannes. (29)

Along with the polarization of private and public spheres
also came the polarization of gender characteristics. Men were
associated with “rationality" and women with “emotionality.”
This polarization was evident in the literature during the
Enlightenment. Immanuel Kant described the “Beautiful” and the
“Sublime” as the two chief kinds of finer human feelings and

associated women with the “Beautiful” and men with the

“Sublime.” He wrote: “Das schone Geschlecht hat eben so wohl

38

Verstand als das mannliche, nur es ist ein schfiner Verstand, der
unsrige soll ein tiefer Verstand sein, welches ein Ausdruck ist,
der einerlei mit dem Erhabenen bedeutet” (270). Kant claims
that the intellect of a woman is a beautiful intellect, whereas
that of the male sex should be a noble intellect. He concludes
that a woman will avoid the wicked not because it is wrong, but
because it is ugly. He claims that she does something only
because it pleases her. He further adds: “Tiefes Nachsinnen und
eine lange fortgesetzte Betrachtung sind edel aber schwer, und
schicken sich nicht wohl ffir eine Person, bei der die
ungezwungene Reize nicht anders als eine schéne Natur zeigen
sollen" (271). Thus, Kant contributes to the polarization of
genders roles by associating women with beauty and men with
rationality.9 To give an example of how women internalized the
gender characteristics that were defined as ‘feminine’ by

society, Marianne Ehrmann (1755-95), author of Philosophie eines

 

Weibes. Von einer Beobachterin (1784) wrote: “Des tugendhaften

 

und rechtschaffenen Weibs groste Wfirde ist, verborgen zu
bleiben; ihr Ruhm besteht in der Hochachtung ihres Manns;- und

ihr Vergnfigen ist das Glfick ihrer Familie" (57).

b. The Effects of Industrialization
These ideas about women’s roles in society were carried
over into the nineteenth century. The process of change in

feudal German society intensified in the nineteenth century due

 

9 For more on Kant's views on women see Schott.
39

to industrialization. The second quarter of the nineteenth—
century was a period of transition from pre-industrial to an
industrial economy. Cordula Koepcke describes how

industrialization led to devaluation of women’s work at home:

Das Haus war mehr Schlaf- als Wohnstatte. Da die Arbeit
auBer Haus geleistet wurde, liefen die Faden nicht mehr im
Hause zusammen, sondern von ihm fort. Und weil das Geld,
das zum Lebensunterhalt gebraucht wurde, in der Fabrik
verdient werden muBte, erhielt die Hausarbeit, die nichts
einbrachte, einen minderen Rang, die im Hause Arbeitenden
hatten minderes Ansehen, und da das die Frauen waren,
wurde Frauenarbeit, ganz gleich, wo sie geleistet wurde,
fortan geringer geschatzt als Mannerarbeit. Die
Hausfrau,von einst, die dem Hauswesen vorstand, anderen
weiblichen Familienmitgliedern und dem Gesinde gebot, und
eine herrscherliche Stellung einnahm, hatte jetzt gerade
noch Arbeit ffir sich selbst. (14)

The increase in the number of bureaucrats in the
nineteenth—century led to even more polarity between the public
and private domains. Consequently the difference in the roles

of men and women in society sharpened. Christian Wilhelm

Spieker, editor of Emiliens Stunden der Andacht und des

 

Nachdenkens (1856) wrote about the roles of men and women. The

 

abiding popularity of this book is evident from the fact that
seven editions of the book were printed between the years 1806

and 1856. He writes

Wenn der Mann mehr ffir die Welt lebt, so lebt die Frau
mehr ffir das Haus; wenn sich der Mann in den Strudel der
Geschafte stfirzt, so zieht sich das Weib in das stille
Heiligtum ihres Herzens zurfick. Der Mann 5011 ernst,
stark und tapfer sein, lieber wild in das Leben hinein -,
als scheu aus dem Leben herausfliehen; er soll das Schwert
des Rechts und der Wahrheit ffihren, die Freiheit
beschfitzen, die Unschuld schirmen und die Gerechtigkeit
vertheidigen; er muB taglich gerfistet sein zu Arbeit und

40

Kampf. Das Weib dagegen soll milde, ruhig, freundlich,
gehorsam, lieber scheu aus dem Leben zurfick -, als wild in
das Leben hineindringen; sie soll das Bild der Sitte und
der Freude, friedlich und freundlich, in der Armuth reich,
bei Wenigem zufrieden und in der Beschranktheit glficklich
sein. In der Gemeinschaft mit Kindern und Hausgenossen
und bei dem engsten Kreise des Lebens ein Glfick gibt, das

in dem weitesten nicht gefunden werden kann. (155)

The female characteristics were defined by a combination
of biology and destiny. The primary function of the body and
mind of woman was to reproduce. Thus she was regarded as
receptive where as man was regarded productive. The
productivity of a man was concerned with social production and
that of a woman with private reproduction. Man was considered a
‘citizen’ of the society, who was devoted to its daily social,
political and economic struggles, whereas a woman was devoted to
her home and family. Woman was thus related to the matters of
heart and man to the matters of reasoning.

Even within the sphere of the family women did not have
equal rights with men. They had no legal rights to protect the
goods they inherited after marriage. They also did not have the
right to property, as men took over control of all the property
after marriage. In upper class families, the father or the
caretaker of the bride and the bridegroom signed a marital
agreement to assure some level of support to the woman in case
the husband died or became bankrupt. However, such contracts
hardly offered any help to a woman since laws were not uniform

in all the German states. Further, in many regions, the

contracts were no longer valid after the birth of the first

41

child (Becker-Cantarino Der lange weg 49). Thus, marriage was
not a relationship of equals.

After getting married, women took over the household
duties. The educational material for women was aimed at
preparing them for this task and developing a traditional female

character, as I will now demonstrate.

c. Changes in the Bourgeois Ideal

Before starting the discussion about the education of
women, it is important to note that the polarization of gender
characteristics and gender roles was mainly taking place in the
bourgeoisie. The middle and upper middle classes were
experiencing major changes in structure and power. They had to
redefine the role of family in the changing social atmosphere.
The discussion about the education of women was aimed at
defining an ideal for women in the bourgeoisie.

Earlier in the eighteenth century the bourgeoisie had the
aristocratic house as its ideal. Sophisticated and even highly
educated women were tolerated in the noble class. As Peter
Petschauer notes, the ideal of an aristocratic home “gave way
during the course of the century to the ideal of the middle-
class home with its emphasis on the inner life of the family and
low acceptance of female erudition” (289). There was
ambivalence in the bourgeoisie’s attitude toward the noble
class. On the one hand, the bourgeoisie became critical of the

family life among the nobility. The noble ladies were

42

considered frivolous, because child care was mostly in the hands
of servants in the noble families. On the other hand, the
bourgeoisie tried to imitate the leisurely way of life of the
nobles as a status symbol. Herrad Schenk points out the effect
of this ambivalence on the life of a middle class woman:

Die Frau aus dem Bfirgertum soll einerseits mfiflig sein wie

ehedem der Adel, d.h. sie soll nicht den Mfihen und Kampfen

des Erwerbslebens ausgesetzt sein, in denen sich der
bfirgerliche Mann bewahren muB; sie soll aber keineswegs

MuBe im Sinne der verwerflichen Untatigkeit zeigen,

sondern sich um das Wohlergehen ihrer Familie kfimmern;

genauso rastlos, wie sich der Mann im Geschaft abmfiht,
soll sie sich in die Zufriedenheit von Mann und Kindern,
die Wohlerzogengeit der Dienstboten, den hauslichen Ablauf

bemfihen. (19)

Although the Enlightenment philosophers mainly criticized
the nobility in order to make the bourgeois ideals stand out in
a more favorable light, there was an element of truth in the
criticism. Ute Frevert describes child care in noble homes
during the late eighteenth century in which children in the
noble families were handed over immediately after birth to a wet
nurse. They lived, to a large degree, isolated from their
parents and had their own royal households. Further, the
education and care of children lay in the hands of others,

although parents furnished governesses and private tutors (28).

Married women in the noble families enjoyed the social status of

their husbands. They could also have their own social circle
and activities. Thus, a married woman in the noble family was
relieved of her ‘duties’ as housewife and mother. Those who

remained unmarried received endowments from the family. Their
social standing might not have been as high as that of the

43

married women; nevertheless they enjoyed economic independence.
The bourgeoisie distanced itself from the aristocratic female

ideal and pursued its own ideals of gender role divisions.

3. Education of'Wbmen in Nineteenth-Century Germany

a. Various Opinions About WOmen’s Education

The theories about women’s education in the nineteenth century
were influenced by the theory of the “character of the sexes” in
the Enlightenment. The most influential theme in the literature
written during eighteenth as well as nineteenth century about
women’s education is the predestined role of women as helpers of
their husbands, educators of their children, and supervisors of
their households. Pia Schmidt summarizes the aim of women’s
education during the Enlightenment:

Die Debatte um weibliche Bildung steht damit im Kontext

der Herausbildung des neuen bfirgerlichen

Familienleitbildes. Als folgenreiche Hauptstromung laBt

sich festhalten, daB Madchenerziehung restriktiv angelegt

wird. Bildung ffir Frauen findet ihre Begrfindung nicht im

Sinne eines Menschenrechts auf Bildung. Vielmehr hat sie

ausschliefllich den Zweck zu erffillen, Frauen auf ihre

Funktion in Ehe und Familie, in der Diktion der Zeit: auf

ihre Bestimmung zur Hausfrau, Gattin und Mutter

vorzubereiten. ((327)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau had a remarkable influence on
writings about women in Germany. According to Rousseau, the
upbringing of women had to be aimed at making women useful and
likable to men. The purpose of their life was to serve men and
that is what they should be taught to do (467). Fichte saw the

reason for women’s subordinate position in nature and not in

44

human law or social convention (135). The educators influenced
by philosophers such as Rousseau, Kant or Fichte tended to
emphasize woman’s duties in the household, her nature as a
complement to that of man and her role as mother.

Joachim Heinrich Campe (1746-1818) was one of the central
figures in the discussion about women’s education. His book

Véterlicher Rath ffir meine Tochter, first published in 1791, had

 

ten editions by 1832. He saw marriage, children, and home as
the proper calling for women. He argued in this book that it is
God’s plan and society’s needs that have placed women in their
dependency. Thus, they must acquire life wisdom through
experience in the house and strengthen this wisdom with skills
including proper religious attitude or appropriate moral
training (21-34). He wanted women to have professional training
to perform their household duties. In other words, he wanted
them to use their skill in the house, not outside of it.
Although few in number, opposing voices were not totally
absent from the scene. The most significant of them was that of

Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel, who wrote Uber die bfirgerliche

 

Verbesserung der Weiber in 1792. Based on his assumptions about

 

the universality of reason and the socio-historical
determination of human character, Hippel argues for the total
integration of women in the social world by giving them equal
educational and professional opportunities. He argues for
women’s equal access to educational and occupational
opportunities and emphasizes that with education women can

45

better serve the state. In his NachlaB fiber weibliche Bildung

 

 

he argues that individuals can become human beings only by
their activity in the social sphere. If women are excluded from
the social sphere, it would relegate them to the status of
animals: “so sind die Weiber so lange mfiBig, als man sie zu den
Trieben der Thiere, zu Tisch und Bett, zur Selbsterhaltung und
Fortpflanzung erniedrigt” (49). However, Hippel’s argument had
little impact on the debate about women’s education. By the end
of the eighteenth century, the Enlightenment approach of
educating the citizens for the state was no longer dominant.
Instead, neo-humanist arguments by authors such as Humboldt
proved to be more influential.

Humboldt argued that the purpose of education is not to
create individuals to serve the state but to create autonomous
individuals. Women, according to him, are by their very nature

incapable of becoming autonomous individuals. In his Plan einer

 

vergleichenden Anthropologie he finds women smaller, weaker and

 

more delicate than men. They are inherently passive and
incapable of investigating truth (364-66). Humboldt’s View, not
Hippel’s, is most influential by the turn of the nineteenth

century.

b. Educational and Professional Possibilities for Women
Both liberals like Hippel and conservatives like Campe agreed
that some kind of education was necessary for women. During the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, there were only a few

46

girls' schools aimed at providing an education beyond the
elementary level. The number of schools providing education
beyond the elementary level gradually increased in the
nineteenth century as “men and women in the upper and middle
classes had become enamored with the idea of education”
(Petschauer [1989] 105). Yet, as James Albisetti notes, none of
these institutions “offered a curriculum equivalent to that of
the contemporary Latin schools for boys” (24). Albesetti
describes how instruction in arithmetic and the sciences
developed along the predestined female role, the “Bestimmung."
For example, science instruction for girls might include both
natural history, covering elementary material from botany and
zoology, and descriptions of nature, including introductions to
geology, chemistry and physics. Nonetheless, much of this
educational material was related to nutrition or the woman’s
housewifely concerns (Albesetti 48). In addition to these
formal schools, tutoring was also a way to get education for the
girls in noble and upper-middle class.

Women were excluded from the university because the
university was mainly to train men to later serve the state.
There were only a few exceptions to this rule. These were
mostly women whose fathers or husbands were teaching at a
university. A few, Ann Maria van Schurmannn (1607-1678), Luise
Adelgunde Viktoria Gottsched (1713—1762), Regina Josepha von
Siebold (1771-1849) and Dorothea Christiane Leporin (1715-1825)
had an opportunity to go to a university (Niemeyer 275-95).

47

Speaking about women’s education during the late
eighteenth and early nineteenth century, Dfilmen points out that
even though reforms in women’s education were taking place,
women were still restricted to the private domain of life: “Je
starker zu Ende des Jahrhunderts die Bestrebungen ffir eine
allgemeine Madchenbildung werden, desto ablehnender und harter
werden jene Stimmen, die Frauen rigoros in den hauslichen Kreis
verweisen und ‘Weiblichkeit’ ffir unvereinbar mit einer
Ausbildung des Verstandes erklaren" (124). Whatever education
women were given was aimed at making them good wives, mothers
and housekeepers, since those were the only roles women could
assume in family life. This attitude toward women's education
can also be seen in the literature that was created for the

female audience in the nineteenth century.

4. Literary Socialization of Women in the Nineteenth Century
Traditional literature for women, which was published
partly as a continuation of the tradition from the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries, reinforced the bourgeois ideal of
femininity. This literature consisted of devotional writing,
books offering advice to young women regarding household
matters, or moral writings. The content of these books
illustrates the conditioning process to which women were
frequently exposed in the nineteenth century. The language of
these books was simple and emotional. The style was
conversational and many times the books were written in the form

48

of letters to create the illusion of personal relationships.
From the titles of some of these books it becomes apparent that
the authors pose as a “Wegweiser” or a “ratende Freundin” giving
“mfitterlicher Rat." Gfinter Hantzschel points out that the
purpose of women's literature, written by male as well as female
authors, was to counsel and to comfort its audience:10
Der Literatur wird therapeutische und trostende Funktion
zugesprochen. Alle Autoren sehen in ihr ein Mittel der
Geistes-und Herzensveredelung. Schéngeistige Bildung ist
hier, dem Gedanken der asthetischen Erziehung des
deutschen Idealismus verflichtet, ein wesentlicher Faktor
zur Entwicklung einer harmonischen Personlichkeit; in den
allgemeinen, nicht geschlechtsspezifischen Anstandsbfichern
dagegen lediglich noch Mittel sozialer Selbstbehauptung
(29).
Women were advised against reading any literature which was
philosophical or radical. Any political literature was excluded
from the reading programs for young ladies. Even scientific
texts were simplified for women because such texts were thought
to be not suitable for their mind (Petschauer 30-38).
The anthology by Gfinter Hantzschel includes traditional

texts for women written in the nineteenth century by various

authors. In one such text, the author of Briefen an eine

 

Jungfrau fiber die Hauptgegenstande der Asthetik, Schroeer

 

 

10 An anthology by Gfinter Hantzschel of traditional texts for
women includes texts that support this point. For example, see
Roth, Elise. Die Tochter in Haus und Welt. Wegweiser zur
Weiterebildung nach dem Austritt aus der Schule. (Stuttgart :
Schwabacher, 1897); Lindemann, Marie von. Die rathende
Freundin. Mitgabe ffir junge Madchen beim Eintritt in’s Leben.
(KOIn: J. P. Bachem, 1886); Hohenhausen, Elisa von. Die
Jungfrau und ihre Zukunft in unserer Zeit, oder mfitterlicher
Rath einer Pensionsvorsteherin an ihre scheidenden ZOglingifiber
ihren Eintritt in die Welt. (Weimar: Bernhard Friedrich Voigt,
1854)

 

 

 

 

 

 

49

Tobias, writes: “Der Gelehrte Mann kann und mufl . . . Alles
kennen und lesen, um den ganzen Umfang der Literatur zu
fibersehen und fiberhaupt die Geschichte der Sprachbildung daran
zu lernen; gebildeten Frauen kann es nur darum zu thun sein,
Dasjenige zu kennen, was wahren poetishen GenuB gewahr" (32).
Only texts that would provide “poetic pleasure" were deemed F
suitable for women. .
In addition to participating in literary activities as

readers, women were active as writers. As Barbara Becker-

 

Cantarino notes, in the course of literary history women started
with letter writing, and later on used other genres. She
writes:
Briefe sind die Schule der schreibenden Frauen gewesen;
mit diesen Texten machten Frauen seit spatestens dem 17.
Jahrhundert fiberall in Europa ihre ersten selbstandigen
Schreibversuche, ehe sie dann im 18. Und 19. Jahrhundert
in den von den mannlichen Literaten etablierten und
respektierten literarischen Gattungen als Autorinnen von
Romanen, Lyrik und zuletzt auch von Dramen hervortreten
konnen. (Leben als Text 83)
Silvia Bovenschen points out that the genre of the epistolary
novel was popular among women writers because of its open form
and the proximity of its subjects to the private sphere, to
which most of the women were restricted (Bovenschen 216). In

addition to writing novels, women also used other genres such as

autobiography and drama.11

 

11 For novels see among others Meise, Schieth and Goodman. For
drama see Kord. For letters and epistolary novel see Becker-
Cantarino: Leben als Text, Hahn-Hahn, French and Runge.

50

Although women were allowed to get a limited education
they were supposed to use their knowledge to fulfill their
duties in the home. When women used their education to become
writers, they were entering the public domain, and thus breaking
away form gender role expectations. To be an educated woman
(gebildete Dame) was accepted, but to be a learned woman
(Gelehrte) was met with scorn. For example, Herder writes in a
letter to Caroline Flachsland: “Sie haben Recht, daB ich auf das
gelehrte Frauenzimmer vielleicht zu sehr erbittert bin; aber
ich kann nichts daffir: es ist Abscheu der Natur." Later he
continues by saying that a scholarly woman seems so unnatural to
him that “ich immer ffirs arabische Sprfichwort bin ‘eine Henne,
die da krahet, und ein Weib, das gelehrt ist, sind fible
Vorboten: man schneide beiden den Hals ab!’” (Schauer 46).

The influence of public opinion on the women writers who
had chosen a public activity that did not fit the contemporary
gender ideology was inevitable. It produced conflicts in them.
On the one hand, they had to maintain the bourgeois female
ideal, while on the other hand, they had the desire to write,
which was contradictory with that ideal. Ruth-Ellen Boetcher
Joeres describes this conflict with the help of ‘labeling
theory':

As the labels of appropriate gender characteristics were

increasingly and more widely accepted, their activity as

writers might well be seen as deviant, and that judgment
would be absorbed, interiorized, and possibly believed by
the writers themselves. What was inevitable in this
instance was a clash of these external negative
representations -- initially coming from external sources,
but ultimately internalized by the writers -- with the
inner positive resistance of a self-representation that

had caused these writers to write and publish in the first
51

place . . . . And in most instances it is also apparent
that the women themselves acknowledged their own deviance
and waged ongoing struggles to have themselves accepted as
respectable despite their activities. (Respectability 5)
This conflict led to ramifications in women’s writing, such as
the topos of modesty, and reminders that their writing was
spiritually motivated. Furthermore, many women writers often
give as the reason for publishing pressure from friends or
family. Negative public opinion about women writers was part of
a cultural system that marginalized them. Due to this
marginalization, women’s presence in publishing, editing, and
the critical establishment was minor (Boetcher-Joeres
Respectability 9). Women’s writing reveals their struggle to
cope with the marginalization. However, this conflict evident
in women’s writing should not be taken as essential. Anita
Runge points out that it should rather be seen as a result of
the social condition in which they were writing. She thinks
that the different quality of texts by women
ist Konsequenz der Moglichkeiten und Grenzen
schriftstellerischer Kreativitat von Frauen im Kontext
zeitgenossischer Rollenzuschreibungen und asthetischer
Normen. Die Anerkennung dieser spezifischen
Andersartigkeit als historischer Kategorie ermoglicht die
ErschlieBung von aus dem Kanon ausgeschlossenen weiblichen
literarischen Traditionen, aber auch die Analyse von
Differenzen innerhalb der literarischen Produktion von
Frauen eines Zeitraumes und die Gewichtung nicht-
geschlechtsspezifischer Faktoren (etwa der sozialen
Herkunft, des kulturellen Umfeldes, regionaler
Besonderheiten etc.) ffir die schriftstellerische Tatigkeit
von Frauen. (21)

This approach of understanding the conflicts in women’s writing

not as a given, but as a result of the specific socio-cultural

52

background of the writers is especially fruitful for studying
Hahn-Hahn and Pfeiffer. It helps us understand how each of them
dealt differently with the pressure of being marginalized as a
woman. More importantly, it focuses our attention beyond gender
to their different social backgrounds and commonality of being
European.

Even under the unfavorable conditions that made writing by
women itself a deviant behavior, some women writers were voicing
their concerns about equal rights for women. Birgit Wégenbaur
has recently pointed out that writers such as Fanny Tarnows
protested against the social discrimination of women in the late
eighteenth- early nineteenth-century. Educators such as Amalia
Holst and Betty Gleim also made concrete suggestions to improve
the social status of women. Renate Mohrmann’s anthology

Frauenemanzipation im deutschen Vormarz. Texte und Dokumente

 

(1978) includes texts by women writers of the nineteenth century
voicing their concerns about women’s emancipation. It includes
authors such as Fanny Lewald, Malvida von Meysensbug, Mathilde
Franziska Anneke, Louise Aston, Louise Dittmar, Luise Mfihlbach,
Louise Otto-Peters and Ida Hahn-Hahn.

In her Memoiren einer Idealistin, Malvida von Meysenbug

 

demands education for everyone in order to become independent:
“Jedes menschliches Wesen hat Anspruch auf eine Erziehung, die
es fahig macht, auf sich selbst zu ruhen; dieses Recht mfiBte die
Gesellschaft ihm sichern, indem sie die Eltern im Fall der Not
zwange, es ihm zu gewahren, oder, bei absolutem Mangel and
Mitteln von deren Seite, selber helfend eintrate” (298). Louise

53

Otto-Peters asks for equality for man and woman before law: “Das
Weib muB fiberall als mfindig erklart werden und vor Gericht daffir
anerkannt, seine Sache selbst vertreten zu dfirfen wie in
gleichem Fall der Mann" (19). She not only demands equal rights
for women in marriage, but she also wants women to have the
right to vote. These women were the precursors of the movement
for women’s emancipation that became stronger in the second half

of the nineteenth century.

Conclusion

Educationalists, philosophers, and writers developed and
popularized bourgeois gender ideology. This ideology defined
women by their role as mothers, wives and housekeepers. It tied
them to the private sphere of home. Socially, culturally, and
economically, women were marginalized in society, although the
degree of marginalization varied according to their social
class. Now I will turn to the biographies of Ida Hahn-Hahn and
Ida Pfeiffer to see how well they fit the profile of nineteenth
century marginalized woman. Discussing the specific socio-
cultural background of these authors will begin to reveal some
of the complexities of women’s writing that were discussed

earlier.

54

B. The Biography of Ida Hahn-Hahn12

Ida Hahn-Hahn was born into an aristocratic family in 1805
in Mecklenburg. She spent the early years of her life at her
father’s newly inherited castle in Replin, Mecklenburg-Schwerin.
Hahn-Hahn received virtually no formal education, but rather she
had a governess. Although her family was one of the oldest and
most respected among the nobility of Mecklenburg, they suffered
considerable financial ruin when her father became involved with
the theater and lost most of his money{13 This led to the
divorce of her parents. Hahn-Hahn was pushed into a hasty
marriage to her cousin Graf Friedrich Hahn at the age of twenty-
one. The marriage was mainly to support her mother and sister
financially. Hahn-Hahn’s marriage proved to be unhappy. Her
husband divorced her on the basis of falsified evidence of her
infidelity in order to marry another woman. Hahn-Hahn had a
daughter from the marriage, whom she handed over to private
foster parents after her divorce.

Until her divorce, Ida Hahn-Hahn’s life seems to have

followed the life pattern of an aristocratic woman in the

 

12 Biographical information about Hahn-Hahn is based on Elke
Fredriksen (ed), Women Writers of Germany, Austria, and
Switzerland 91-95; Gisela Brinder-Gabler, Lexicon
detuschsprachigen Autorinen (Mfinchen: dtv, 1986) 127 , Renate
Mohrmann, Die andere Frau (Stuttgart: Metzler, 1977) 85-117
and also by MOhrmann, Frauenemanzipation in deutschen Vormarz
(Stuttgart: Reclam, 1978) 230-235; Carol Diethe, Towards
Emancipation. German Woman Writers of the Nineteenth Century
(New York: Berghahn, 1998) 107—119.

13 Renate Mohrmann notes that Hahn-Hahn’s father built his own
theater and spent generous amounts of money on the actors. This
was considered inappropriate for a man of his standing and
ultimately it led to his financial ruin (Andere Frau 88)

55

 

 

 

 

 

nineteenth century. She received her education through tutors
and governesses as was common among noble families. Her
marriage was more out of convenience than love, but as Ute
Gerhart has documented, during the nineteenth century “in a
marriage the issue was not personal preference but family
strategy” (Women in German History 29). She was relieved of her
duty of bringing up her child when she handed it over to foster
parents. It is only after her divorce that she managed to
pursue an independent career as a writer.

Hahn-Hahn was able to support herself financially through
the endowment of 1500 Taler that she received after the divorce.
Although she never remarried, she lived with a companion Baron
Adolf von Bystram until his death in 1849. In 1830, she had a
son from Bystram whom she gave up for adoption, and began her
literary career. Her first collection of poems was published in
1835. With Bystram, she undertook a series of journeys to
places that were popular travel destinations among the noble
class. In 1835 she went to Italy, in 1837 to Vienna and then to
Italy and Sicily in 1838. She traveled to Nice and then to

Spain through southern France 1840. Her travelogues Reisebriefe

 

and Erinneringen aus und an Frankreich appeared in 1842. The

 

travelogue of her journey to Denmark and Sweden in 1842 appeared
an year later. In the year 1843/44 she traveled to the Middle

East, and the travelogue Orientalische Briefe appeared in 1844.

 

Besides travelogues, Hahn-Hahn also wrote thirteen novels.
Hahn-Hahn’s popularity as a writer becomes evident in the
attention she received in the contemporary reviews. Katrien van

56

Munster mentions over 100 reviews of Hahn-Hahn’s works which
appeared in newspapers and journals from 1835 to 1850 (170).
Speaking of Hahn-Hahn’s novels, Mohrmann notes that her novels
are not only “in Bezug auf Autorenschaft Frauenromane, sondern
auch ihrem Inhalt nach. Die Frau beherrscht ganz ausschlieBlich
das Aktionsfeld, und zwar genau gesagt die Aristokratin zwischen
ffinfzehn und dreiBig” ( Die andere Frau 233).

Hahn-Hahn’s most famous novel, Grafin Faustine (1840) is

 

generally regarded as a feminist manifesto because its heroine
rejects the dominant ideology of woman’s place in the marital
arrangement. Her heroines are self-made women from aristocratic
families who reject the limitations of bourgeois values. In
this novel, the central character, Faustine, says: “Wie komisch
sind die Manner! Ganz ernsthaft bilden sie sich ein, der liebe
Gott hat unser Geschlecht geschaffen, um das ihre zu bedienen!”
(63). What Faustine asks for is that “die Manner mit ihnen
umgehen wie mit ihresgleichen und nicht wie mit erkauften
Sklavinnen, denen man in fibler Laune den FuB auf den Nacken
stellt und in guter Lauen ein Halsband oder ahnlichen Plunder
hinwirft" (63).

Hahn-Hahn expresses her concern about women’s education in

the novel Der Rechte (1845). She writes: “Schickt die Madchen

 

auf die Universitat und die Knaben in die Nahschule und Kfiche:
nach drei Generationen werdet ihr wissen, ob es unmoglich ist,
und was es heiBt die Unterdrfickten sein” (243). However, Hahn-

Hahn’s concern about emancipation is limited to aristocratic

57

women. Hahn-Hahn is aware of these limitations, as she notes in
her diary:
Wenn ich zuweilen h6re oder lese, wie mich die
Journalisten verfluchen, weil ich nicht schreibe ffirs
Volk, so denke ich immer h6chst gelassen: wie kann man ffir
etwas schreiben, das man nicht kennt? Ich kenne nicht
Bedfirfnis, Denk- und Lebensweise des Handwerkers, Bauern
oder Fabrikarbeiters. Ich habe nie in ihrer Sphare
gelebt, in ihrer Luft geathmet, in ihre Verhaltnisse mich
grfindlich eingeweiht; und sich nur ffir sie interessieren
heiBt noch nicht sie kennen. (see Schmidt—Jurgens 79)
Hahn-Hahn was always proud of her aristocratic origins.
She writes in a letter to her spiritual advisor Archbishop
Melchior von Diepenbrock of Breslau: “Aristokratisch zu sein ist
mir zu jeder Zeit, in allen Verhaltnissen unter allen Umstanden
eine Ehre gewesen” (185). The revolution of 1848 brought with
it democratic ideas which repelled Hahn-Hahn. She decided to
convert to Catholicism in 1850. Contributing to her decision
was also the death of her long time companion, Bystram, in 1849.
In Von Babylon nach Jerusalem (1851), Hahn-Hahn explains that a
number of religious experiences in her travels since 1843 had
led her to believe that she was “von jeher eine schlafende
Katholikin” (12). After converting to Catholicism in 1850, she

founded a convent for unwed mothers in 1854 and spent the rest

of her life there until her death in 1880.

58

C. The Biography of Ida Pfeiffer14

Born in Vienna in 1797, Ida Pfeiffer was third among the
seven children of a well-to—do merchant. Until Pfeiffer was
nine years old, she was the only girl among her five brothers.
Her father insisted on a strict upbringing, which Pfeiffer
claims helped her during her travel around the world. The
family was well-to-do but the children were denied even simple
wishes and were forced to make sacrifices. Pfeiffer’s father
did not treat Ida any differently from her brothers. She wore
boy’s clothes and moved around as freely as her brothers.
Pfeiffer writes about these free years of her early life: “Ich
war nicht schfichtern, sondern wild wie ein Junge und beherzter

und vorwitziger als meine alteren Brfider” (Madagaskar 10). As a

 

child Ida loved playing with her five brothers and did not like
the games meant for girls. Pfeiffer’s father encouraged her to
be tough and courageous and even promised her jokingly that she
could get an education in a military institution to become an
officer.

However, these relatively free years in Pfeiffer’s life
were not to last forever. Her father died when she was nine and
her mother took over her upbringing. Her brothers were sent to
school but she stayed at home with her mother. Pfeiffer’s
mother did not agree with the way in which her husband had

brought up their daughter and she tried to reinforce the

 

l4 Bibliographical information about Pfeiffer is based on her
biographical sketch by her son Oskar Pfeiffer in the beginning
of her travelogue Reise nach Madagascar (Marburg: Jonas. 1980)

 

59

traditional woman’s role in Pfeiffer. The first step was a
change in Pfeiffer’s clothes “die Hose gegen den Unterrock zu
vertauschen” (Madagaskar 11), as she describes it. She rebelled
by falling seriously ill and was given back boy’s clothes on a
doctor’s advice. Sibylle Duda explains sickness as a specific
feminine form of rebellion that would not free women from their
social role but would at least let them defer the duties that
were associated with that role (124-30). Pfeiffer succeeded in
escaping her social role at least for some time. She wanted to
learn violin, but her mother forced her to take piano lessons,
which was considered more appropriate for women. Pfeiffer tried
to avoid the piano lessens by often ‘accidentally' burning or
cutting her fingers.

Pfeiffer continued with this rebellion against her mother
until the age of thirteen. Then a young man named Joseph Franz
Emil Trimmel was appointed as her tutor and she had a change of
heart mainly due to him. She describes how she changed from a
tomboy to a fine young woman out of her love for the tutor:

Da ich meine Eltern mehr ffirchten als lieben gelernt hatte

und er, so zu sagen, das erste Wesen war, das mir mit

Freundlichkeit und Theilnahme entgegenkam, so hing ich mit

schwarmerischer Liebe an ihm. Ich suchte jeden seiner

Wfinsche zu erffillen und ffihlte mich nie glficklicher, als

wenn er mit meinen Bestrebungen zufrieden schien. Er

leitete meine ganze Erziehung, und obleich es mich gar
manche Thrane kostete, meinen jugendlichen Traumereien zu
entsagen und mich mit Dingen zu befassen, die ich frfiher
mit der tiefsten Verachtung betrachtet hatte, so tat ich
es doch ihm zu Liebe. Selbst alle weiblichen Arbeiten,

Nahen, Stricken, Kochen u.s.w. lernte ich. Ihm verdanke

ich es, daB ich im Verlaufe von drei bis vier Jahren
vollkommen zu der Einsicht der Pflichten meines

 

and Gabriela Habinger, Eine Biedermeierdame erobert die Welt.
Die Lebensgeschichte der Ida Pfeiffer ( Wien: Promedia, 1997).
60

 

Geschlechtes gelangte, daB aus dem wilden Jungen eine

bescheidene Jungfrau wurde.(Madagaskar 14)

After resigning to the female role, Ida started reading
travel literature to satisfy her quest for adventure. She might
have conformed outwardly to the expectations of her mother but
deep inside she still cherished dreams of adventures. In a
biographical sketch of Pfeiffer, her son Oskar Pfeiffer
describes how she still wanted to pursue goals that were
considered male at that time:

Wenn sie von Jemanden horte, der groBe Reisen gemacht

hatte, so erfaBte sie Wehmuth, daB ihr als Madchen ffir

immer das Glfick verschlossen bleiben muBste, das Weltmeer
zu durchfurchen und ferne Lander aufzusuchen. Oft lag ihr
der Gedanke nahe, mit Naturwissenschaften sich zu
beschaftigen; sie unterdrfickte ihn aber immer wieder, weil
sie darin nur Rfickkehr zu den “verkehrten Ideen”

witterte.(Madagaskar 15)

Pfeiffer’s passion for travel might have also been influenced by
her tutor, Emil Trimmel, who himself was an avid traveler and
had written travelogues and travel handbooks. Trimmel proposed
to Pfeiffer when she was seventeen years old. However, she
could not marry this man since her mother thought of him as an
inappropriate match because of the difference in their social
classes.

In 1820 she ended up marrying a man much older than her
because she wanted to show Trimmel that she was not marrying out
of love but as a moral duty. She confesses: “Dr. Pfeiffer
schien mir ein sehr vernfinftiger, gebildeter Mann zu sein; was

aber in meinen Augen noch weit mehr zu seinem Vortheil sprach,

war, daB er hundert Meilen von Wien entfernt lebte und 24 Jahre

61

mehr zahlte als ich” (Madagaskar, 19). Soon after their
marriage, her husband lost his job and Ida faced many financial
problems. Since working outside home was not acceptable for
women at that time, Pfeiffer secretly earned money by giving
music and drawing lessons and supported her two sons. She
describes her struggle later on:

Gott allein weiB, was ich durch achtzehn Jahre meiner Ehe

litt! . . . Nicht durch rohe Behandlung von Seite meines
Mannes, sondern durch die drfickendsten Lebens-
Verhaltnisse, durch Noth und Mangel! Ich stammte aus

einem wohlhabenden Hause, war von frfihester Jugend an

Ordung und Bequemlichkeit gewohnt, und nun wuBte ich oft

kaum, wo ich mein Haupt niederlegen, wo das Bischen Geld

hernehmen sollte, um mir nur das h5chst Nethige
anzuschaffen. Ich verrichtete alle Hausarbeiten, ich fror
und hungerte, ich arbeitete im Geheimen ffir Geld, ich
ertheilte Unterricht in Zeichnen und Musik, und doch trotz
aller Anstrengungen gab es oft Tage, an welchen ich meinen
armen Kindern kaum etwas mehr als trockenes Brot zum

Mittagessen vorzusetzen hatte. (Madagaskar 21)

Pfeiffer needed money to support her family, but she could not
work openly. Instead she was forced to tutor secretly to make
ends meet. After her mother's death Pfeiffer received a modest
amount of money through inheritance.

Pfeiffer separated from her husband in 1835 and moved to
Vienna to provide a better education for her sons. After her
sons were grown and settled, she stepped out of the role of a
bourgeois housewife and started traveling on her own. She had
been living more or less separated from her husband for the past
ten years. However, she does not mention this as the reason why
she traveled alone. Rather, she states that he was too old (68

years old) to bear the hardship of travel. She herself was

forty-five years old at that time and used her age as an excuse
62

 

Ink

to travel alone. She thought that she would not be exposed to
the dangers that other younger women traveling alone might face:
. . daB ich als Frau allein in die Welt hinaus wollte,
so verlieB ich auf meine Jahre (ich zahlte deren schon
45), auf meinen Muth und auf die Selbststandigkeit, die
ich in harter Schule des Lebens erlangt hatte, als ich
nicht nur ffir mich und meine Kinder, sondern auch mitunter
ffir meinen Mann sorgen muBte. In Betreff des Geldpunktes
war ich zur groBten Sparsamkeiten entschlossen.
Unbequemlichkeiten und Entbehrungen schreckten mich nicht.
Ich hatte ja deren schon genug und zwar gezwungen
ertragen; wie viel leichter muBten die freiwillig
aufgesuchten mit einem bestimmten Ziel vor Augen zu
ertragen sein. (Madagaskar 24)
Pfeiffer chose the ‘Holy Land’- the Middle East- as the
destination of her first journey. A religious place was easy to
defend as a travel destination. This first journey in 1842 was
just the beginning of a series of journeys that Pfeiffer
undertook until her death in 1858. In this relatively short
period of time, Pfeiffer traveled extensively all over the
world. In 1845 she traveled to Iceland and Scandinavia. Her
first journey around the world, one that lasted two years,
started in 1846. Three years later, she undertook her second
journey around the world. Her last journey was to Madagascar in
1856. Pfeiffer traveled relentlessly for almost sixteen years.
She won several honors during her lifetime for her achievement
in traveling. The explorer Alexander von Humboldt and the
geographer Carl Ritter wrote letters of recommendation for
Pfeiffer. The King of Prussia granted her the golden medal for

science and art. She was also the first woman to be admitted as

an honorary member to the Geographical Societies in Berlin and

Paris.
63

Pfeiffer enjoyed freedom and independence while traveling
in different countries, but once she was at home, she was forced
to comply to the norms of society. Hiltgund Jehle has
documented the correspondence between Pfeiffer and the publisher
of her books, Bauer. Pfeiffer indicates in her letter to the
publisher that she was not free to make independent decisions
about publishing her book. Pfeiffer had to ask her publisher to
send her manuscript back. She writes in the letter: “Sie wfirden
mich sehr falsch beurtheilen, wenn Sie dachten, daB Mifitrauen
die Ursache meiner Handlung ist. Allein wenn man etwas der
Offentlichkeit PreiB gibt und noch dazu den Namen darunter
setzen $011, so werden Sie es sehr natfirlich finden, daB sowohl
mein Mann als meine Geschwister darauf bestehen, sich fiber
manche Punkte genau zu erklaren" (27).

Pfeiffer's youth and married life mostly followed the
pattern of a middle class woman. She enjoyed some freedom from
the restrictions imposed on girls in her early childhood, but
was soon forced by her mother to enter the role of a young
woman. Pfeiffer internalized the bourgeois woman’s ideal and
judged other people, especially women, based on that ideal.
However, by traveling to different countries all alone, she was
breaking away from these ideals. This leads to contradictions
in her view about other women. On the one hand, Pfeiffer
stresses the importance of education suited for feminine
activities. For example, when Pfeiffer visited the United
States in the last leg of her second voyage around the world,

64

 

she questioned the teaching of sciences, as well as the Latin
and Greek languages, in the private schools for girls. She
claims that such an education is not suited for girls:

Diese einseitige Erziehung, in welcher das Weibliche

ganzlich vernachlassiget wird, mochte ich als Hauptursache

jenes Hanges nach Emancipation betrachten, der die

Amerikanischen Madchen und Frauen so stark charakterisiert

. . . Die Madchen in meinem Lande studieren ebenfalls

Sprachen, Musik, Geschichte u.s.w., finden aber dabei

Zeit, sich auch mit den weiblichen Beschaftigungen bekannt

zu machen.(Zweite Weltreise 133-34)

On the other hand, she criticizes the Royal Geographical
Society because their statute’s limited membership to men. She
writes modestly that although she herself may not be eligible
for the membership because she has too little scientific
knowledge, she builds a case for other women (and indirectly for
herself):

Niemand wird aber laugnen, daB es heutzutage unter den

Frauen gar manche gibt, die vollkommen wissenschaftlich

ausgebildet sind; und diese nur deBhalb auszuschlieBen,

weil sie Frauen sind, wfirde ich hochstens im Oriente
begreiflich finden, wo das weibliche Geschlecht noch wenig
geachtet ist, aber gewiB nicht in dem auf seine

Civilisation und seinen Zeitgeist so stolzen England.

(Madagaskar 89 )

Besides showing her preconception of the Orient, this shows the

contradiction in Pfeiffer’s views about women.

D. Conclusion

Despite the fact that Ida Hahn-Hahn and Ida Pfeiffer came from
different family backgrounds, both experienced restrictions
because of their gender at some point in their lives. They

experienced unusual childhood experiences that must have

65

affected their psychological make up. The ways in which they
dealt with these restrictions differed according to their social
background as well as their personal convictions. Coming from
an aristocratic family, Hahn-Hahn enjoyed relatively more
freedom than Pfeiffer. The endowment that Hahn-Hahn received
after her divorce made her economically independent. She defied
social norms by living in a free relationship with a man after
her divorce. Unlike Hahn-Hahn, Pfeiffer's income depended on
her books. Coming from a bourgeois family, she was forced to
fulfill gender role expectations.

However, neither Pfeiffer nor Hahn-Hahn remained in the
margins of society. By traveling to different places and
writing about their experiences they stepped into the public
sphere dominated by men. In the next chapter, I will
demonstrate how the differences in their lives due to class, and
the commonality due to their gender and European identity,

influence the travel writing of Ida Hahn-Hahn and Ida Pfeiffer.

66

Chapter III
An Analysis of Ida Pfeiffer’s Travel Writings

A. Introduction
1. The Autobiographical Approach to Ida Pfeiffer’s Travel
Writing
Ida Pfeiffer was a popular travel writer during her

lifetime. Several editions of her travel writings were printed,

and they were translated in many other languages as well.15
However, she seems to have been forgotten after her death. Only
in the last ten to fifteen years have feminist critics working

on women travel writers brought her back to light. Since then

many of her travel writings have been republished.16

The research done on Pfeiffer by current critics has been
mainly autobiographical in its approach. It is true that the
autobiographical approach can be productive for the
interpretation of texts, especially travel writings.
Biographical information about writers helps us to situate them

in their historical context and gives us clues about their self—

 

15 Four editions of her first travelogue, Reise einer Wienerin
1J1 das heilige Land, were printed from 1844 to 1856. Her second
'travelogue, Reise nach dem skandinavischen Norden und der Insel
Island im.Jahre 1845, had two editions. Eine Frauenfahrt mm die
Whalt had six editions in English from 1851 to 1856. Her works
vuare also translated into French, Dutch, Malaya and Russian.

16 Reise einer Wienerin in das Heilige Land has been
repnflolished in 1980 (ed. Ludwig Plakolb) and 1995 (ed. Gabriele
Ikfloinger); Reise nach dem skandinavischen Norden republished in
11991(ed. Gabriele Habinger), Eine Frauenfahrt um die Welt in
11992(ed. Gabriele Habinger), Meine zweite Weltreise in 1993
Lnuder the title Abenteuer Inselwelt (part 1-2) and Reise in die
bkaae Welt (parts 3-4)in 1994 (ed. Gabriele Habinger); Reise

 

 

 

67

perception. Travel writing, in the end, tells us more about the
self-perception of the travel writers themselves than the people
described in the travel writing. Biographical information about
the travel writer can act as a key for understanding the self-
perception as well as the perception of the Other in travel
writing. Hiltgund Jehle defends the autobiographical approach
to studying women’s travel writing on precisely these grounds:
Bisher ist in der deutschsprachigen Frauenforschung stark
biographisch gearbeitet worden,..., weil Fremdwahrnehmung
auf biographisch-kulturellem Hintergrund zu erkennen ist
und interpretiert werden kann. Denn als fremd wird immer
das bezeichnet, was der wahrnehmenden Person nicht
vertraut ist. Das Fremde ist folglich keine Eigenschaft
des Anderen, sondern verweist in dieser Gegenprojektion
stets auf die wahrnehmende Person zurfick. Um diesen
Mechanismus zu entschlfisseln, sind biographische
Kenntnisse hilfreich. (Eine Kartographie 31)
Recent works by contemporary critics on Pfeiffer include
Hiltgund Jehle’s Ida Pfeiffer. Weltreisende im 19. Jahrhundert ,
which offers extensive information about Pfeiffer's life and
travels. Tamara Felden compares Pfeiffer’s travel writings
Fanny Lewald and Ida Hahn-Hahn. The latest biographies of

Pfeiffer by Gabriele Habinger, Eine Wiener Biedermeierdame

erobert die Welt, as well as Eka Donner’s Und nirgend eine

 

Karawane, were published in 1997, the centenary year of

Pfeiffer’s birth. Michaela Holdenried and Gabriela Habinger

have studied her role as an ethnographer.17

 

ruach Madagaskar in 1980 (Jonas Verlag) and in 1991 under the
‘title Verscthrung im Regenwald (ed. Hiltgund Jehle).

357 Further works on Pfeiffer include articles by Helga Watt

Inmnegret Pelz (1981), Heidemarie Zienteck and Elke Frederiksen.

Ihalga Watt writes about Pfeiffer’s experiences and interests as

vanan travel writer. Pelz focuses on Pfeiffer’s life before she
68

 

 

While giving extensive information on Pfeiffer's life, or
studying her role as traveler or ethnographer, the biographical
research neglects Pfeiffer’s role as a writer. Furthermore, the
critics who do focus on Pfeiffer as a writer portray her
primarily as an adventurous and exceptional traveler who broke
away from the gender role expectations of society. I am not
disputing Ida Pfeiffer’s accomplishments as a traveler.
Nonetheless, I would like to focus more on her travel writings
to see how her writing was shaped by the socio-political
circumstances of her time. Instead of looking only for the
autobiographical elements in Pfeiffer’s writings, I will situate
her texts in a wider theoretical framework of Orientalism and
colonialism (as discussed in the first chapter), as well as in
the historical context of the bourgeois ideal of femininity in
nineteenth century German society (as discussed in the second
chapter).

As modern readers, it is hard for us to assess the
.reliability of Pfeiffer’s self—portrayal. The extent to which
ruar self-portrayal is mitigated by social pressures, and the
enttent to which it is an indication of the internalization of
true bourgeois gender ideal, is hard to determine. For example,
PfEKiffer states in Reise einer Wienerin ins Heilige Land that
srua is traveling for religious reasons. It is uncertain whether

PfEEiffer was truly a religious person or whether she projects

 

trirveled to find her motivation behind traveling. Frederiksen
<:onqoares her with other women travelers of nineteenth century,
sumfln as Hahn-Hahn, Lewald and Montagu. Zienteck gives a brief
rennieW'of all the travelogues by Pfeiffer. In addition to

69

herself as a religious person because of social pressure.
Nonetheless, reading Pfeiffer’s texts in the context of the
social life of German women in the nineteenth century, along
with the biographical information on Pfeiffer’s life, helps us
understand her self-perception. This self-perception is a key

element for the way she portrays people of other countries.

2 . Non-autobiographical Approaches to Women’ 8 Travel
Writing

In Discourse of Difference Sara Mills takes a non-

 

autobiographical approach to the analysis of travel writing by
women. Explaining how women’s travel writing has been analyzed
by most critics, she concludes: “The way these texts have been
read has been primarily ‘realist’, that is, they are not
analyzed as textual artifacts, but rather as simple
autobiographies" (4). She notes that she wants to “take these
texts seriously, not simply to reduce them to biographical
studies of exceptional spinsters” (6). The aim of her analysis
is to show that “women’s travel writing is constructed within a
range of discursive pressures and in its reception it has
frequently been labeled ‘autobiographical’”(12). Mills thinks
‘that this labeling should be seen as an attempt to deny women
'the status of creators of “cultural artifacts.”

Mills explains that women travel writers wrote under

‘Vdiscursive pressures” that emerged from the power of patriarchy

 

tflnese, Jutta Duhm-Heitzmann and Jfirgen Ostermeyer have written

laiographical newspaper articles on Pfeiffer.
70

and the power of colonialism. The power of patriarchy acted
upon women through the definition of gender role divisions,
whereas the power of colonialism acted upon them in relation to
the people of the countries they describe in their books.

Mills’ framework enables us to see different forces at work in
women’s travel writing. However, the assumption in Mills’ non-
autobiographical approach that autobiographies are not “cultural
artifacts” is questionable. Mills assumes autobiographies to be
“simple” or “straightforward transcripts of the lives of the
woman travellers” (36).

On the contrary, autobiographies by women are far from
being simple. As Catherine Goodman points out, the
autobiographer writes within a situation of defining plots,
texts, or conventions. She further explains: “It is
unquestionably useful in reading women's autobiography to be
aware of which plots, texts, or conventions were current when
the autobiography was written. For, like other autobiographers,
vummen adopt those poses and plots for their life histories which
.are current and socially acceptable -- or indeed intellectually
tfluinkable” (XI). For example, while reading Pfeiffer’s
‘travelogues, one has to take into consideration factors such as
Emmirgeois gender ideology and the preconceptions in German
scxziety about the countries visited. These factors influence
true pose she adopts in her writing. Thus autobiographies are as
dynuamic as other non-autobigraphical literature, and approaching
trnrvel literature autobiographically by no means denies women
literary prowess .

71

However, this should not lead us to conclude that the
narrator in the travel writing and the writer as a person
outside the text are identical. To take an example, by
traveling alone to far away places, Pfeiffer broke away from the
gender role expectations of nineteenth-century German society.
While Pfeiffer was able to leave the “feminine” domain of family
and house, I will argue that the narrator in her texts has to
adhere to gender role expectations because of social pressures.

My approach to the travel writings by Pfeiffer and Hahn-
Hahn is autobiographical. However, unlike the research on their
texts so far, I will distinguish between the narrator in the
text and the writer as person outside the text to demonstrate
the complexity of autobiographical travel writing by women. The
analysis in this chapter will show how and why the (seeming)
contradictions arise between the narrator in Pfeiffer’s text and
Pfeiffer’s self outside of text. The analysis is divided into
two parts. The first part will deal with the way the narrator
firesents herself in the text. The second part is about the
firesentation of the Other. It includes the narrator’s
Exarception of the people of the countries she visits. Two major
cpaestions are involved in this discussion: How does the
ruarrator’s self-perception relate to her self-representation in
tflne text and how does it influence her perception and
Ixresentation of the Other?

This analysis focuses on Pfeiffer’s travelogues Reise
Gainer Wienerin ins Heilige Land and Eine Frau fahrt um die Welt.
inqe first work describes her travel to the Middle East; the

72

second focuses on her journey around the world. Pfeiffer
traveled alone on both of these, as well as her other journeys,
and became famous through the publication of her travel

writings. The title of her first travelogue, Reise einer

 

Wienerin ins Heilige Land, reveals the fact that the author is a

 

woman; however, it was published anonymously. Emboldened by the
success of her first travelogue, she published her next

travelogues, including Eine Frau fahrt um die Welt, under her

 

own name .

B. Self-representation in Pfeiffer’s Travel‘Writing

1. Motives For Travel

In 1842 Pfeiffer set out for her journey to the Middle East.

The title of the book about this journey, Reise einer Wienerin

 

ins Heilige Land, itself gives us the clue about the narrator’s

 

intentions. Pfeiffer is traveling for religious reasons. She
states that the aim of her journey is “Jene Stellen zu
erreichen, von welchen das wahre Licht der Menschheit ausging!”
(48). After arriving in the town of Césarea she is overcome
Ifiith strong religious feelings:
Ein ganz eigenes, nie gekanntes Geffihl erweckte es in mir,
auch da zu gehen, wo Christus ging. Jeden Fleck, jedes
Gebaude betrachtete ich mit doppeltem Interesse.
Vielleicht, dachte ich, betrete ich dieselbe Stelle,
dasselbe Haus, das einst von Jesus besucht wurde.

Glficklich und selig kehrte ich auf unsere Barke zurfick.
(110)

73

Pfeiffer is ecstatic after arriving in Jerusalem. She describes
the morning in Jerusalem as “der schonste Morgen meines Lebens”
(124). The emotions leave her speechless:

Ich war so in Gedanken und in Lobpreisungen versunken, daB

ich nicht sah und horte, was um mich vorging. Und dennoch

ware es mir nicht moglich zu sagen, was ich alles dachte,
was ich alles ffihlte . . . . Ich . . . eilte in die

Kirche, um mein Herz durch ein inniges Gebet zu

erleichtern" (124-25).

By stating the aim of her journey to visit holy places the
narrator appears to be a religious woman. In addition she also
reiterates her faith in God on various occasions to stress her
piousness. While leaving from Constantinople to go to Jerusalem
she seeks help in God: “Alles fremd! Doch ein Blick hinauf zu
den Sternen, ein Gedanke: Du bist nicht allein, solange du an
Gott haltst, senkte Ruhe in meine Seele, und bald gewann ich es
fiber mich, mit stiller Heiterkeit alles zu beobachten, was um
Inich vorging” (84). As her ship leaves Constantinople, she
prays for help: “Ich sandte ein kurzes, aber inniges Gebet zu
Gott, ich flehte um seinen Schutz auf dieser gefahrvollen,
weiten Reise ...” (85). In this way, the narrator is presented
.as a pious person traveling to religious places. Writing about
Pfeiffer’s motivation behind her journey to the Holy Land,
Tknnara Felden notes: “...diese Reise Ida Pfeiffers [stellte]
(sine Pilgerinnenfahrt [dar]. Sie reiste nicht, wie etwa Hahn-
Ifiihn, primar der interessanten, “frappanten” Erfahrung wegen,
:yondern um biblische Statten zu besuchen. Sie will ihre
refiligifisen Empfindungen durch die Zugabe realgeschichtlicher

Bilder steigern” (98) .

74

However, as Ida Pfeiffer’s biographical sketch in the last
chapter showed, Pfeiffer had been interested in travel ever

since her childhood. She states in her Reise nach dem

 

skandinavischen Norden und der Insel Island:

Schon als zartes Kind hatte ich die grfiBte Sehnsucht
hinaus in die Welt zu kommen. Begegnete ich einem
Reisewagen, blieb ich unwillkfirlich stehen, und sah ihm
nach bis er meinen Blicken entschwunden war; ich beneidete
sogar den Postillon, denn ich dachte, er habe die ganze
groBe Reise mitgebracht. Als Madchen von zehn, zwolf
Jahren las ich nichts mit gréBerer Begierde, als
Reisebeschreibungen, und beneidete zwar keinen Postillon
mehr, wohl aber jeden Weltumsegler, jeden Naturforscher.
(11)

One has to keep in mind that Reise einer Wienerin in das

Heilige Land was Pfeiffer’s first travelogue. Whether her

 

journey to the Middle East was for religious reasons or not, it
is likely that social pressure forced her to present herself as
a pious bourgeois woman who was not traveling for her own
pleasure. Even after describing the journey as religious,
Pfeiffer feels the need to defend herself by explaining that she
is traveling only after taking care of her household
responsibilities:
Seit Jahren lebte der Wunsch in mir, eine Reise in das
Heilige Land zu machen. Jahre gehorten dazu, um mit dem
Gedanken eines so gewagten Unternehmern vertraut zu
werden. Als daher meine hauslichen Verhaltnisse sich so
gestaltet hatten, daB ich mich wenigstens auf ein Jahr
entfernen konnte, hatte ich nichts eifriger zu tun, als
mich auf diese Reise vorzubereiten. (Reise einer Wienerin
9)

'Traveling alone in foreign countries gave Pfeiffer freedom that

twas denied at home. She seems to be aware of this, as one can

75

see in a letter to her friend. She writes the letter in

Constantinople on her way back home:
Ach, was werde ich noch horen bis ich nach Hause komme,
statt mich zu freuen, ffirchte ich mich gerade wie ein
Schuljunge der wieder nach den Ferien in das Joch muB.—

Doch in den sauren Apfel mun einmahl wieder gebieBen
werden, und so wollen wir den BiB herzhaft thun und Ende .

. oder Anfangs November heimkehren. (see Jelhela, Ida

Pfeiffer 62)
This clearly shows that Pfeiffer sees her journey as an
opportunity to experience freedom that was denied at home. It
was a fulfillment of her childhood dreams. But Pfeiffer is wary
of admitting her enjoyment in the first travelogue since that
would not have fit the gender role expectations in society.
Thus the narrator poses as a dutiful wife and insists on the
“proper purpose” of religion to justify the journey. It should
be noted here that love of travel and religion are not mutually
exclusive motivations for traveling. However, in Pfeiffer’s
case, the use of a religious motive appears to be a strategy to
eavoid public criticism, rather than the real reason for travel.

Hiltgund Jehle draws the conclusion: “Als Kernaussage
laleibt: Ida Pfeiffer lebte, um zu reisen. Da sie mit ihren
IReisen auch ihre Existenz sicherte, laBt sich umgekehrt ebenso
:yagen: sie reiste, um zu leben” (67). Considering the fact that
i1) seventeen years Pfeiffer traveled 150,000 miles on sea and

2N3,000 miles on land (Zienteck 47) it might be true that she

 

18 .Jehle quotes from several unpublished letters by Pfeiffer
trait are available in various archives in Germany and Austria.
76

lived in order to travel. Nonetheless, in spite of all the
journeys that Pfeiffer accomplished in real life, the narrator
in her text has to justify her first journey by giving a
socially acceptable reason.

Thus Pfeiffer’s self outside the text and the narrator in
her text are not identical. In the world outside the text,
Pfeiffer broke away from gender norms. However, the narrator in
her text is forced to holds on to these norms because of
societal pressures. This leads to conflict and ambiguity in

Pfeiffer’s writing as I will now demonstrate.

2. Gender Ambiguity

While writing about nineteenth-century women travel
writers, Shirley Foster points out that as women became able to
travel more widely and more independently, they were taking on
the attributes of strength, initiative and decisiveness that
were considered “masculine.” At the same time they retained the
less aggressive qualities considered appropriate to their own
sex. Foster calls this a “position of gender ambiguity” (11).

As we saw in the second chapter, the female domain was
related to the private sphere of family, whereas the male domain
was related to the public sphere. By traveling alone to places
far away and writing about those journeys, these women left the
femaleedomain and stepped into territory ruled mainly by men.

In doing so, many tried to adopt the voice of the male travel

77

writer. Linda Worley describes the difficulty that the women
travel writers faced in adopting the male voice:

Since men were assumed to possess such characteristics as

activity, energy, independence, and intellectual prowess

to be used in public life and the wide world, their travel
and any writing based on these travels were fully in
harmony with society’s expectations. This situation was
quite different from women for whom travel meant leaving
the postulated ‘female’ sphere, a sphere limited to the
interior realm and domestic life. Women travellers would
thus most likely have felt conflict between their need to
fulfill cultural expectations which viewed them as the
weak, passive ‘other’, and their deliberate entrance,
perhaps even escape, into a world of danger and
difficulty, a world of travel to faraway places. Women’s
travel narratives reflect these tensions, tensions missing

in men’s narratives. (40)

Women travel writers took on the masculine attributes of
strength and decisiveness to represent their rebellious selves
that had broken away from the gender barriers to travel to
different places. The genre of travel writing which was
dominated by male writers and the situation of travel required
wonen.to the male voice. However, they were aware that the act
of taking on the male voice was against societal gender
expectations. In order to compensate for their deviance from
‘the gender role, they also felt the need to express their
ftnninine side in their writing. This conflict between the
«expression of masculine traits of adventure and independence on
true one hand and the pressure to exhibit the feminine virtues of
dependence and passivity on the other hand is reflected in their
texts.

Nonetheless, it is important to note that the pressure of

scxzial expectations on women writers that lead to conflict in

78

their writing was not equal for all women. We should not assume
that all of them necessarily wrote in a similar way because of
their gender. The way they dealt with this conflict differed
according to their socio-economic background. We will see in
this chapter that as a bourgeois woman, Ida Pfeiffer felt
pressure to conform to the gender norms. The next chapter will
show that Ida Hahn-Hahn, who was an aristocrat, felt this
pressure to a lesser extent.

Coming from a bourgeois family, Pfeiffer had limited
financial support for her journey. The small amount of money
that Pfeiffer had at her disposal made her journey more
difficult and thus more adventurous. Pfeiffer collected samples
of flora and fauna and sold them later on to get money for her
future journeys. She was also dependent on the income from the
sale of her books. Pfeiffer financed her travels, in part, with
the money she earned by writing and selling her books. The
pressure to sell her books might have been one of the reasons
why Pfeiffer conformed to gender role expectations in her travel
writing. By conforming to the gender roles Pfeiffer tries to be
acceptable to the readers. I will now demonstrate how Pfeiffer
tries to balance the masculine features in her travel writing

with proper feminine features.

a. Entering the Male Domain

Bourgeois gender ideology in the nineteenth century

eflnphasized the role of women in the family. It defined women as

79

being passive, weak and dependent. Women were expected to be
religious, industrious and modest, whereas men were described as
independent, brave and having willpower. Rationality was
considered a masculine trait possessed only by men. By
traveling alone to different places, Ida Pfeiffer entered the
male domain of public life. She was seeking a place in the
tradition of travel writing that was dominated mainly by men.

In order to describe her adventurous experiences Pfeiffer had to

take on attributes that were considered masculine.

(1) . Objectivity
Although the number of women travelers was increasing in the
nineteenth century, they were still not considered serious
travelers as were their male counterparts. Gabriele Habinger
points out that:
GroBe Reisende, Forscher und Entdecker waren Manner -
...Sicherlich unternahmen weniger Frauen [als Manner]
Reisen, fiber die sie Berichte verfassen hatten konnen,
weil ihnen die daffir forderlichen Berufe wie Gesandter,
Arzt, Missionar, Schiffskapitan oder nur einfacher
Seefahrer nicht zuganglich waren. Als Naturforscher kamen
Frauen ebenfalls nicht in Frage, da das Studium der
Naturwissenschaften nicht in dem Bereich der weiblichen
Bildung fiel . . . . (Aufbruch ins Ungewisse 249)
Pfeiffer collected samples of plants and animals on her journey
(around the world (Eine Frau fahrt 16,36) but she does not
identify her journey as scientific. Pfeiffer’s presentation of
'the narrator as a religious observer denies any scientific

(flojectivity to the text that her male counterpart as a

syzientific observer would have enjoyed. Thus Pfeiffer has to

80

claim objectivity explicitly and include certain elements only
for the purpose of the validation of her account. In Reise

einer Wienerin ins Heilige Land, she claims: “Ich schildere

 

alles, wie ich es finde, wie es meinen Augen erschien,

ungeschmfickt, aber wahr” (25). In Eine Frau fahrt um die Welt

 

she only wants to be “wahrhaft” and “getreu” (326). In her
efforts to appear objective, she avoids exaggeration. Thus, her
reaction to many places and monuments is that of disappointment
rather than of overwhelming emotions. Pfeiffer visits the
Sultan’s palace in Constantinople full of expectations.
However, the palace fails to meet her expectations: “Mit der
gespanntesten Neugierde begab ich mich dahin, um abermal wieder
viel weniger zu sehen und zu finden, als ich gehofft hatte . . .
. Meine Erwartung war bald enttauscht!” (Reise einer Wienerin
58). Pfeiffer is also disappointed with the coffee shops in
Constantinople. She expects to see elegant coffee shops, but
after visiting one of them, she writes: “der Eintritt in das
erste [Kaffeehaus] nahm mir aber sogleich diesen Wahn" (60).
She is not even impressed by the pyramids near Cairo: “Auch hier
war meine Erwartung und Vorstellung, die ich mir von ihnen
gemacht hatte, viel gréfler gewesen; ich fand diese Riesenwerke
nicht so fiberraschend” (288). This approach of presenting the
information with restraint supports the narrator’s claim of
objectivity.

Pfeiffer emphasizes her own objectivity by criticizing
other travel writers for exaggeration and by setting herself
apart from them: “Doch sah ich genug, um mich auch hier wieder

81

zu fiberzeugen, daB Ubertreibung oder Poesie so manche Feder weit
fiber die Wahrheit hinaus leitet” (Reise einer Wienerin 187). As
we will see, Pfeiffer gives numerous accounts of adventures in
her texts but she doubts the truthfulness of other travel
writers when doing the same: “Ich mochte beinahe glauben, daB
manche Reisende Raubanfalle und gefahrvolle Begebenheiten, die
sie nicht erlebt haben, bloB deshalb beschreiben, um ihren
Erzahlungen mehr Interesse zu verleihen” (Reise einer Wienerin
231). Pfeiffer’s skeptical position toward other travel
writers underscores her claims of objectivity. Speaking about
claims of objectivity by Pfeiffer, Michaela Holdenried notes:
“In ihrem Bemfihen, nicht zu fabulieren wie andere Reisende,
verkehrt sich das Gesehene, ohne noch den Schock der
Enttauschung zu reflektieren, in den Jargon des
pseudoaufgeklarten Reiseffihrers” (162). This “pseudo-
enlightened” jargon can be seen as Pfeiffer writes:
Uberhaupt pflegen viele Reisende in ihren Erzahlungen sehr
zu fibertreiben; einerseits beschreiben sie oft Sachen, die
sie selbst gar nicht gesehen haben und nur vom H6rensagen
kennen. Andrerseits statten sie die Erscheinungen, die
ihnen wirklich vorkommen, mit etwas gar zu viel Phantasie
aus. (Eine Frau fahrt 62)

By posing as an objective narrator in her texts, Pfeiffer avoids

‘emotionality’, which was considered feminine.

(2). Crossing the Gender Line

Pfeiffer seems to be aware that she has broken gender

stereotypes. She knows that public opinion was against women

82

traveling alone. She describes the reaction of her friends to
her plan to travel alone to the Middle East:
Vergebens suchten meine Verwandten und Freunde, mich von
diesem Vorsatz abzubringen. Hochst lebhaft stellte man
mir all die Gefahren und Beschwerden vor, die den
Reisenden dort erwarten. Manner hatten Ursache zu
bedenken, ob ihr KDrper die Mfihen aushalten konne und ob
ihr Geist den Mut habe, dem Klima, der Pest, den Plagen
der Insekten, der schlechten Nahrung usw. kfihn die Stirn
zu bieten. Und dann erst eine Frau! So ganz allein, ohne
alle Stfitze hinauszuwandern in die weite Welt, fiber Berg
und Tal und Meer, ach, das ware unmdglich. Dies war die
Meinung meiner Freunde. (Reise einer Wienerin 9)
When Pfeiffer starts her journey from Vienna to Constantinople
on a ship, she becomes an object of curiosity: “Bald h5rte man
vom Schiffskapitan, daB eine Frau auf dem Schiff sei, die bis
Konstantinopel zu reisen gedenke, und nun betrachtete man mich
von allen Seiten” (Reise einer Wienerin 11). During her
journey to Syria, Pfeiffer describes how one Englishman comes to
her because he wants to meet: “eine so wackere Frau, die es
wagen kOnne, eine so groBe, beschwerliche Reise ganz allein zu
unternehmen . . ." (Reise einer Wienerin 101). Pfeiffer is an
object of curiosity not only for the people traveling with her
on the ship, but also for the native people of the country she
is visiting. Later on in her journey she ascribes the curiosity
of the native women upon seeing her to her gender:
Selten wohl mag eine Europaerin in diese Gegenden kommen,
ich muBte daher den Eingeborenen ein ungewohnlicher
Anblick sein. Deshalb kamen auch an jedem Ort, wo wir
anhielten viele Weiber und Kinder zu mir, betrachteten
mich von allen Seiten, betasteten meine Kleider, setzten

meinen Strohhut auf und sprachen oder deuteten bestandig
mit mir” (Reise einer Wienerin 212).

83

The reaction of the native people upon seeing Pfeiffer was
typical of many native people to Europeans, but Pfeiffer views
this as exceptional because of her gender. Pfeiffer’s frequent
references to her gender emphasize that this was not a usual
journey, but a journey alone by a woman. This promises her
reader implicitly a novelty in the text and makes her
travelogues perhaps more marketable.

By emphasizing the fact that she was traveling alone as a
woman, Pfeiffer creates expectations of potential dangers and
adventures in the reader. By telling stories of other Europeans
who have been killed or robbed while traveling, Pfeiffer points
out the danger involved in the journey. The fear of not coming
home alive is expressed at the very beginning of her journey to
the Middle East : “Ich machte mein Testament, bestellte alles
derart, daB im Fall des Todes, worauf ich mehr gefaBt sein muflte
als auf eine glfickliche Rfickkehr, die Meinigen alles in bester
Ordnung fanden” (Reise einer Wienerin 10). A similar threat to
her life is also expressed in her journey around the world.
However she does not seem to be disturbed by the prospect of her
possible death. She simply writes: “Deshalb sandte ich auch so
hier meine Papiere und Schriften nach Europa, daB, wenn ich
ausgeraubt oder getotet wfirde, doch wenigstens mein Tagebuch in
die Hande meiner sohne gelangen mochte” (Eine Frau fahrt 202).
By caring more for journal than for her life, Pfeiffer assumes
the masculine trait of intrepidity and implies that writing is

more important to her than life.

84

(3). Authoritative Narrative Figure

The expectations about tales of adventure that are
awakened in the reader are fulfilled by various episodes

described in the texts. The narrator in Pfeiffer’s Reise einer

 

Wienerin ins Heilige Land and Eine Frau fahrt um die Welt is a

 

strong, determined figure who battles against extreme hardship
and rarely loses face even in difficult situations. Pfeiffer
has constant control over the situation as well as over the
native people involved in the situation. There are numerous
episodes of attacks and acts of aggression by native people in

which Pfeiffer always has the upper hand. In Reise einer

 

Wienerin ins Heilige Land, Pfeiffer describes an incident near

 

Jerusalem where she is attacked by a native man. While Pfeiffer
is walking outside the city with another European whom she has
met during her journey, a native man approaches them and asks
for money. Upon their refusal to give him any money, the man
attacks them. However, they manage to avoid being robbed by
running away. Pfeiffer concludes from this: “dafl Franken die
Stadt nie allein verlassen sollten” (138). Pfeiffer describes a

similar incident in Eine Frau fahrt um die Welt. While Pfeiffer

 

is in Brazil, she is attacked by a native man on her way to the
German colony in Petropolis. Pfeiffer fights this man off with
her umbrella and her knife. Even after getting hurt in this
fight, she continues with her journey to Petropolis. She
carries a gun to protect herself from future attacks. By using

physical force to protect herself, Pfeiffer aligns herself

85

explicitly with the masculine characteristics of adventure and
force.

In her journey around the world Pfeiffer describes her
experiences in China. On her way to a tea factory in Canton,
she confronts Chinese people who shout at her and follow her.
Pfeiffer is undaunted by their protest and keeps on traveling
alone: “Ich schritt furchtlos weiter, und vielleicht gerade weil
ich keine Furcht zeigte, geschah mir auch nichts" (Eine Frau
fahrt 97). In spite of the obvious dislike of the Chinese
toward Europeans, Pfeiffer forces her way into a tea factory, in
a part of the city ordinarily off limits to Europeans.
Apparently she feels that the Chinese pose no threat to her.

The narrator thus emerges as an authoritative figure.

In Reise einer Wienerin ins Heilige Land Pfeiffer is

 

convinced that her willpower can take her anywhere: “Oft, wenn
ich so einsam meinen Gedanken nachhange, kann ich es selbst kaum
glauben, daB mich Mut und Ausdauer in keiner Lage verlieBen und
dafi ich meinem vergesteckten Ziel Schritt vor Schrittt
entgegenging. Dies dient mir zur Uberzeugung, daB der Mensch
mit festem Willen beinahe Unmogliches leisten kann” (257).
Pfeiffer’s constant control over the situations establishes her
power, which leads Pfeiffer to say “Uberall und jederzeit setzte
ich meinen Willen durch. Ich fand, daB Energie und
Furchtlosigkeit allen Leuten imponiert, sie mogen Araber,
Perser, Beduinen oder wie sie immer heiBen" (Reise einer

Wienerin 253).

86

By emphasizing her belief in her willpower, her readiness
to face adventures and her independence throughout the journey,
Pfeiffer presents the narrator as a person with masculine

strengths.

b. Stepping Back to the Female Domain

By writing travelogues, Pfeiffer enters the male domain
and thus has to assume male stance to describe her adventures.
However, this masculine stance of the narrator is not consistent
throughout the texts. Instead, the male voice is interrupted by
reminders that the narrator still believes in bourgeois gender
ideology. These reminders appear in the form of various
strategies, such as the use of a feminine genre, the diary, the
topos of modesty, and references to topics related to the family
sphere. Pfeiffer uses these strategies to make her texts appear
feminine. The reminders are woven skillfully into the texts
along with all the tales of adventure and suspense. As a
result, the narrative stance is neither clearly masculine nor
feminine. This position of gender ambiguity offers Pfeiffer a
shield against public criticism that she might have faced for
breaking away from gender norms.

To a certain extent, Pfeiffer’s feminine narrative stance
might have been a result of her internalization of bourgeois
gender ideals. However, she broke away from gender role
expectations by living separately from her husband and then

traveling alone all over the world. This suggests that Pfeiffer

87

rather uses the feminine stance as a literary device in order to
be accepted by society. Getting accepted in society was
important for Pfeiffer because she was dependent on the income
from her books. If Pfeiffer had projected the narrator only
with masculine traits, then she could have been exposed to
public criticism for breaking away from gender norms. This
might have affected the sale of her books negatively.

I will now demonstrate the strategies which Pfeiffer uses

to make her text appear feminine.

(1). Genre of Diary

By traveling alone to different places and by writing
about those travels, Pfeiffer was breaking away from gender
norms. She was stepping outside the private domain of family
and breaking the cultural taboo against women as public
speakers. Sara Mills points out that during the nineteenth-
century, travel writing was especially problematic for women
since “by writing about traveling, the women authors were
bringing upon themselves criticism for both the writing and for
the travels which they represented” (41). Pfeiffer tries to
lessen the criticism by choosing the form of a diary for both of

the travelogues, Reise einer Wienerin ins Heilige Land and Eine

 

 

Frau féhrt um die Welt.

 

Certain literary forms, such as letters or journals
suggested a private or domestic orientation. For many women

writers, these literary forms provided a way to compensate for

88

their deviation from gender roles. These genres were considered

not only forms of expression reserved for the private sphere,

but low-status genres as well.19 Speaking about the form of a
diary, Linda Anderson asserts that this form

has offered the woman the possibility of laying claim to
writing while allaying the anxieties of actual
publication. Poised ambivalently between private and
public statement, it can also be seen as a process, rooted
in the private dimension of living which does not take as
its goal or form from its status as social and cultural
artifact . . . the diary for many writers can be regarded
as a symptom of restriction, giving a provisional voice to
women who were denied confident access to public
expression. (60-61)

The form of a diary suggests that the only audience is the
author him/herself. However, when it was used as a literary
device by women, the audience also included the readers. This
becomes obvious in Pfeiffer’s travelogues, in which she offers
advice to her readers regarding food and transportation. In

Reise einer Wienerin ins Heilige Land, for example, she advises

 

the readers:
Bevor man mit dergleichen Menschen wie Barkenffihrern,
Eseltreibern, Tragern usw. in Verkehr kommt, tut man sehr
gut, sich um den Preis zu erkundigen, den man ffir solche
Dienstleistungen zu zahlen hat. Man [muB] die erste Gabe
immer sehr klein einrichten, um noch etwas ffir das
Trinkgeld zu bewahren. (103)
She gives tips about the food that one should bring along
on the journey. She recommends: “Dem, welcher mit Kindern

reist, wfirde ich ganz besonders eine Ziege mitzunehmen

empfehlen" (Eine Frau fahrt 9). She suggests remedies for

 

19 For more on the ‘female genres’ in the nineteenth century
see the section ‘Genre of Letters’ in chapter 4.
89

common sicknesses related to a journey on the ship (Eine Frau
fahrt 74). With her suggestions, she hopes to help
inexperienced readers who might want to travel (Eine Frau fahrt
10).

At times, she reveals her emotions to the reader. She
describes how the farewell from her friends in Vienna was hard
for her (Reise einer Wienerin 10). She describes how lonely she
feels during her journey from Constantinople to Jerusalem (84).
Pfeiffer gives an impression that the narrator has affinity with
the readers instead of authority over them. In this way, she
uses the diary form as a formal device to create a private or

domestic atmosphere.

(2). Topos of Modesty

Speaking of nineteenth-century women travel writers,
Shirley Foster discusses various approaches that they employed
in order to assure the readers of their womanliness. She notes:
“Most importantly, the women travel writers have to substitute
self-effacement or self-mockery for more aggressive or positive
assertiveness in order to demonstrate a true femininity. In the
first place, they prove their modesty by claiming that they
never intended to expose their writings to the common gaze"

(19). For example, Pfeiffer claims in Reise einer Wienerin ins

 

Heilige Land that the work was never meant to be published,

 

rather her friends insisted on publishing it: “Verwandte und

90

Freunde wfinschten die Begebenheiten meiner einsamen Wanderung
lesen. Jedem konnte ich mein Tagebuch nicht zusenden, so wagte
ich es denn auf vieles Zureden meiner Freunde, meine Erlebnisse
ungeschmfickt zu verdffentlichen" (313). Pfeiffer’s claim that
she never meant to publish the journal which she had kept during
her journey to the Holy Land seems to contradict the dialogue
style of the journal. The dialogue style of the journal asserts
that Pfeiffer must have assumed a wider audience for her
journal. Thus it is likely that the claim that she never meant
to publish her journal is simply a device used to prove her
modesty.

Since Reise einer Wienerin ins Heilige Land was the first

 

travelogue by Ida Pfeiffer, she might have been genuinely uneasy
about sharing her experiences publicly. However, in the light
of the numerous other references to her modesty in her first as

well as the other travelogue, Eine Frau fahrt um die Welt, this

 

hesitance to publish can not be taken at face value.

By the time Pfeiffer published Eine Frau fahrt um die

 

Welt, she had became a successful travel writer. In spite of
her success, one sees apologetic modesty on her part instead of
self-assurance. She ends her book by saying: “Meine Leser aber
ersuche ich, ein mildes Urteil fiber mein Buch zu fallen, das mit
einfachen Worten schildert, was ich erlebt, gesehen und geffihlt
habe, und keine hohern Ansprfich macht, als wahrhaft und getreu
zu sein” (Eine Frau fahrt 326). She is not only modest about
her writing, but she is also unwilling to acknowledge herself as
a traveler: “Schon in mehreren Zeitungen ward ich Touristin

91

genannt; dieser Name gebfihrt mir indessen, seiner gewohnlichen
Bedeutung nach, leider nicht" (5). The term ‘Touristin’ implied
traveling for self-pleasure. Pfeiffer did not want to confess
that she was traveling to seek pleasure.

In Reise einer Wienerin ins Heilige Land, she emphatically
denies that she is an author and distinguishes herself from
contemporary women writers whom she refers to as “geistreiche
Frauen”:

Ich bin keine Schriftstellerin, ich habe nie etwas anderes

als Briefe geschrieben, mein Tagebuch kann daher nicht als

literarisches Werk betrachtet werden. Es ist eine
einfache Erzahlung, in der ich alles beschreibe, wie es
mir vorkam ...; darum ersuche ich alle meine geneigten

Leser und Leserinnen um gfiltige Nachsicht, denn ich

wiederhole es noch einmal: ferne ist mir der Dfinkel, mich

in die Reihen jener geistreichen Frauen drangen zu wollen,
denen schon in der Wiege der WeihekuB der Musen ward.

(313)

By denying that she is an author and refusing to
categorize her travelogue as a literary work, Pfeiffer hopes to
be judged leniently by her readers. Admitting that she was an
author would have meant taking a center stage position in the
public sphere. Although Pfeiffer is stepping out in the public
domain by traveling in her real life, she wants the narrator to
appear to be staying in the private domain assigned to women.
She stresses that her writing is merely a subjective account of
her experiences. Pfeiffer’s assertion about the subjectivity of
her writing contradicts her claims of objectivity. This
contradiction indicates the complexity of the task, in which

Pfeiffer tries to balance the projected femininity and

masculinity in her texts.

92

To emphasize that she is not an author, she notes on

several occasions her limitations as a writer. Sometimes she
confesses her inability to describe nature : “Erst einige Tage
spater machte ich diesen Ausflug . . . und genoB da in vollen

Zfigen Ansichten und Bilder, die ich nicht vermogend bin zu
beschreiben" (Reise einer Wienerin 36). Later, she adds: “.
ich war glficklich beim Anblick dieser wunderbaren
morgenlandischen Bilder und hatte nur gewfinscht, ein Dichter zu
sein, um dieses Wundervolle, herrlich schildern zu konnen" (38);
or: “Dieses herrliche Bild wird nie meinem Gedachtnis
entschwinden, wenn ich gleich nicht die Kraft besitze, es zu
schildern” (52). On other occasions she is unable to describe
her feelings: “Und dennoch ware es mir nicht moglich zu sagen,
was ich alles dachte, was ich alles ffihlte. Zu groB war mein
Geffihl, zu arm und kalt ist meine Sprache, es auszudrficken”
(Reise einer Wienerin 124). Rather than an indication of
Pfeiffer’s writing talent, these reminders are devices used by
her to project her modesty.

In addition to being modest about her writing skills,
Pfeiffer disclaims any political or scientific expertise. In
the introduction to Eine Frau fahrt um die Welt, Pfeiffer
writes: “Einerseits besitze ich zu wenig Witz und Laune, um
unterhaltend zu schreiben, und andrerseits zu wenig Kenntnisse,
Inn'fiber'das Erlebte gediegene Urteile fallen zu konnen . .
.WilJ.;ich etwas beurteilen, so kann ich es bloB von dem

Standpunkt einfacher Anschauung aus” (5).

93

While describing the living conditions of black people in
Brazil she sympathizes with them. She writes about the lack of
education among black people and their exploitation by the white
rulers. But she adds that these are just her speculations. She
is not an expert on this subject and thus has no right to
opinion: “Aber ich versteige mich in Vermutungen und
Abhandlungen, die wohl gelehrten Mannern zukommen, nicht aber
mir, die ich die dazu nOtige Bildung durchaus nicht besitze;
mein Zweck ist: nur einfach meine Anschauungen darzulegen” (Eine
Frau fahrt 28). By disclaiming any scientific or political
expertise, Pfeiffer compensates for the ‘masculine’ objectivity
and stresses that her texts are feminine subjective

observations.

(3). Domestic Issues

Another way for Pfeiffer to foreground her femininity is
to talk about topics that were supposed to be proper for women.
These were matters related to the private sphere of home and
family life. It would be questionable to argue that only women
travel writers showed interest in the domestic issues and that
male travel writers did not show any interest in the social
customs of a foreign land. However, women writers used
discussion about domestic issues as a device to express their
feminine voice. They were expected to remain in the private

sphere of domestic life. Thus they had to assert their interest

94

in the “female domain” explicitly, even if they had forced an
entry into the “male domain" by traveling.

Pfeiffer’s texts contain constant references to clothes
and food. She provides practical advice to her readers about
which clothes one should wear and what food one should take on a
journey. She describes in detail the kind of food that one
should expect to get on a ship journey and advises her readers:

Um sich die Kost zu verbessern, besonders bei einer

langeren Reise, tut man sehr wohl, sich mit einigen

Aushilfsmitteln zu versehen. Die zweckmafligsten sind:

Suppenglace und feiner Zwieback; beide verwahre man in

Blechkastchen, um Feuchtigkeit und Ameisen davon

abzuhalten - ferner eine tfichtige Portion Eier, die man

aber, wenn die Reise in sfidliche Gegenden geht, zuvor in
starkes Kalkwasser tauchen oder in Steinkohlenstaub
verpacken muB; dann Reis, Kartoffeln, Zucker, Butter, und
alle Ingredienzien zur Bereitung von Weinsuppe und

Kartoffelsalat. Erstere ist sehr starkend, letzterer sehr

kfihlend. (Eine Frau fahrt 9)

Pfeiffer also advises the readers to bring their own
bedding (Eine Frau fahrt 9). She suggests that one should bring
colored clothes rather than white on the journey because
sailors, who usually do the laundry, are not good at it (Eine
Frau fahrt 9). Detailed instructions regarding matters that are
related to the domestic sphere of the home project Pfeiffer as
an experienced housewife. While spending time in private family
homes she learns about culinary habits and describes them in
detail (Reise einer Wienerin 103,114,127,167,188). She also
observes how children are raised in these families. She talks

about the clothes and ornaments of the native women (Reise einer

Wienerin 116,150).

95

During Pfeiffer's stay in India, she meets a British
woman. Pfeiffer praises this woman as “eine der
ausgezeichnetesten ihres Geschlechtes" (Eine Frau fahrt 145).
Pfeiffer describes how the British woman had done charity work
by collecting money for needy people in Ireland. However, it is
more important for Pfeiffer that she was fulfilling her role in
the family: “AuBerdem ist sie die zartlichste Gattin und Mutter,
lebt nur in ihrer Familie, kfimmert sich wenig um die AuBenwelt
und wird deshalb von der groBen Menge ein Original genannt.

Gabe es doch nur viele solche Originale!" (Eine Frau fahrt 145).
By praising a woman whose most important role in life was of a
housewife and a mother, Pfeiffer conveys the message that she
believes in the bourgeois gender role division. While breaking
away from gender norms, Pfeiffer tries to hold onto a proper

ladylike image.

3. Conclusion

On the one hand, Pfeiffer’s self-representation in Reise

 

einer Wienerin ins Heilige Land and Eine Frau fahrt um die Welt

 

 

is shaped by her rebellious self that breaks away from the
prescribed gender roles. On the other hand, it is shaped by the
societal pressure that forces Pfeiffer to adopt a feminine
voice. Out of her need to be acceptable, Pfeiffer pretends to
be the weaker sex and describes herself as ‘die arme Verlassene
(Reise einer Wienerin 261) or ‘hilflos einzelnstehende Frau’

(Reise einer Wienerin 39). After finding a male companion for a

96

part of her journey to the Holy Land she feels secure: “ Und so
stand ich nun nicht mehr ohne Schutz in der weiten Welt, ich war
geborgen bis Jerusalem, was wollte ich mehr?” (87). However,
Pfeiffer is not successful in her attempts to hide her
rebellious self under the pretense of feminine weakness. As a
result, her self-representation becomes contradictory.

The dichotomy in the self-presentation in Pfeiffer’s texts
can also be seen in the contemporary commentaries on her. It
shows the commentators’ need to place Pfeiffer as a woman writer
and her achievement in the appropriate feminine context. In the
introduction to Pfeiffer’s Reise einer Wienerin ins Heilige
Lang, Alexander von Humboldt praises her perseverance during the
journey. More importantly, however, he finds the simplicity and
modesty in her texts: “Diese Frau ist nicht bloB berfihmt durch
die edle Ausdauer, welche sie inmitten so vieler Gefahren und
Entbehrungen zweimal um die Welt geffihrt hat, sondern vor allem
durch die liebenswfirdige Einfachheit und Bescheidenheit, die in
ihren Werken vorherrschen" (7). He acknowledges her
truthfulness and clarity of judgment but at the same time does
not fail to mention her sensitivity and the tenderness of her
emotions. By stressing the “feminine” virtues of modesty,
simplicity and tenderness in Pfeiffer he makes her acceptable
for the readers and for himself.

Another example of the ambivalent opinion on Pfeiffer is
iJi W. H. Davenport Adam’s Celebrated Women Travellers of the

Itineteenth Century (1883). He praises Ida Pfeiffer for her

 

cxnarage and perseverance. He describes her as “a woman of

97

scarcely less heroic temper than the boldest adventurers of the
other sex” (253). At the same time, he assures the readers of
Pfeiffer’s femininity. He confirms that despite the “masculine
attire” Pfeiffer wore in Tahiti, she is not at all mannish
(229).

Pfeiffer presents the narrator as a person with feminine
qualities because of the pressure from society. In this sense
the narrator is in part being defined by bourgeois gender
ideology. This ideology defined women as the symbolic inferior
Other. It placed her in a position inferior to men in the
patriarchal society at home.

Away from the patriarchal society at home Pfeiffer is no
longer the inferior Other. She observes and defines the non-
European people in a way that secures her a position of
superiority. Pfeiffer creates images of the native culture and
people that are colonial in nature, as we will now see in her

representation of the non-European Other in her texts.

C. Representation of the Other

In travel writing, the way the ‘Other’ is portrayed tells
us more about the preconceptions of the writer than it provides
information about the Other. In this sense, presentation of the
Other is, if only in an indirect way, presentation of Self to a
certain extent. Ida Pfeiffer’s portrayal of the non-Europeans

reveals her attitude of superiority toward them.

98

Speaking of the relation between women’s travel writing
and colonialism, Sara Mills concludes that “women travellers
could not wholeheartedly speak with the voice of colonial
discourse, at least not consistently” (106). Mills thinks that
because of women’s subordinate role in western society, they had
“few discursive places within western colonial institutions”
(106). She argues: “whereas men could describe their travel as
individuals and as representatives of the colonial power, women
could only travel and write as gendered individuals with clearly
delineated roles” (103).

However, Pfeiffer’s description of the Other will show
that her subordinate role in the patriarchal German society at
home did not hinder her from assuming a superior position over
the non-Europeans. Once she was away from home, she assumed her
European identity and adopted a colonial stance towards the

Other.

1. Mbral Superiority
Pfeiffer establishes her authority through demonstrations
of moral superiority. She finds the Tahitians “ausgelassen und
sittenlos” (Eine Frau fahrt 80) and their dances indecent.
After watching the Arabs perform a dance she concludes that they
are backward in many areas of life:
0ft, wenn Windstille eintrat, lagerten sich unsere Araber
auf den Boden, bildeten einen Kreis, sangen Lieder, die
aber so eintonig und harmonielos klangen, als man es sich
nur denken kann; dazu klatschten sie in die Hande und
erhoben zeitweise ein holzernes Gelachter dazu. Ich fand
nicht nur nichts Anziehendes an dieser Unterhaltung, im

Gegenteil, es machte auf mich einen melancholischen

99

Eindruck, zu sehen, wie weit diese guten Menschen noch in

allem zurfick sind. (Reise einer Wienerin 110)

By describing the Arabs as backward, Pfeiffer distances herself
from them and consigns them to another time sphere which belongs
to the past. Pfeiffer is influenced by the European idea of
progress that considered Europe as modern and thus progressive,
whereas the non-Europeans, especially the “Orientals,” were seen
as primitive and thus at a lower stage of improvement. The
industrial countries in Europe were considered civilized,
whereas the non-European countries with agricultural economies
were seen as backward.

Pfeiffer portrays the other places she visits in terms of
abhorrent smells, filthiness and poverty to differentiate them
from her homeland. She complains about Constantinople saying
that: “Schmutz und Gestank, die man fiberall antrifft, die engen,
haBlichen Gassen, das ewige Bergauf- und Bergabsteigen auf den
schlechtesten Wegen verleidet nur zu schnell den Aufenthalt in
dieser Stadt” (Reise einer Wienerin 47). After coming to Jaffa,
she finds: “Die Stadt gleicht an Schmutz, Unebenheiten und
dergleichen allen bisher gesehenen” (Reise einer Wienerin 112).
People in the other nations are presented as inferior to
Westerners -- they have neither decency, cleanliness nor moral
principles.

Even when the native people are described in a positive
way, the qualifiers in such description modify the positive
description. On her way from Damascus to Baalbek, Pfeiffer is
accompanied by native people. She finds them friendly and good-

100

natured. However, she refers to them as ‘Naturmensch’ and
accuses them of stealing: “ Der Charakter dieser Naturmenschen
ist im ganzen recht gemfitlich. Freundlich und gefallig betrugen
sie sich gegen uns . . . Nur der Begriff von mein und dein

scheint ihnen nicht immer deutlich zu sein (Reise einer Wienerin

223-4). Speaking about the native people in a village on her
way to Baalbek she notes: “. . . wohl aber in diesen Talern, wo
die Natur alles beut, was der Mensch bedarf . . . stiehlt dies

freie Volk hier so gut wie die Beduinen und Araber" (Reise einer
Wienerin 237). The native people are described as
“Naturmenschen,” implying that they are ruled by laws of nature

rather than reason. They are characterized by a lack of

rational order.20

Pfeiffer produces personalized accounts of relations with
the native people only to show her superiority to them. While
staying with an Arab family, Pfeiffer tries to teach discipline
and cleanliness to the family members. The natives are
described as underdeveloped and uneducated people who are ready
to be enlightened by her: “Sie lieBen sich gerne belehren, sahen
ihre Fehler ein und gaben mir stets Recht, wenn ich ihnen etwas
sagte und erklarte” (Eine Frau fahrt 267). Pfeiffer is not only
observant but she tries to “correct” their ways. This shows
that she is clearly influenced by the missionary movement. This
movement represented another important aspect of European

“superiority" -- Christianity. The missionary movement saw it

 

20 For more on the topos of ‘Naturmensch’ and the ‘noble savage’
see the discussion about Hahn-Hahn’s description of the Bedouins

101

as the duty of Christians to convert the “heathens”. It was
thought to be a religious and moral duty to bring civilization
to the ‘primitive’ people.

Pfeiffer encounters many missionaries on her journey
around the world. She writes about her idealistic understanding
of the missionary movement:

Nach meiner Meinung stellte ich mir die Missionare als

halbe, wo nicht als ganze Martyrer vor, und dachte sie mir

von dem Eifer und dem Wunsche, die Heiden zu bekehren, so
beseelt, daB sie gleich den Jfingern Christi ihre

Bequemlichkeiten und Bedfirfnisse ganz vergaBen, dab sie

nur mit dem Volke leben, mit ihm unter einem Dache

wohnten, aus einer Schfissel aBen usw. ( Eine Frau fahrt

281)

But Pfeiffer is unsatisfied with the ways the missionaries
work in reality. She thinks that their European clothing and
their elegant living style create fear and caution instead of
love and friendship towards the missionaries in the hearts of
tine native people. She suggests: “Die Missionare mfiBten wie
Véter, wie Freunde mit und unter dem Volk wohnen, mit ihm
arbeiten, kurz seine Mfihen und Freuden teilen, es durch einen
musterhaften, bescheidenen Lebenswandel an sich ziehen und nach
und nach mit einem faBlichen Unterricht belehren” (Eine Frau
fahrt 282). Pfeiffer criticizes the missionaries not for their
purpose of converting the native people, but for the ways the
missionaries work. She shares their belief in the superiority
of Christianity and hopes that they can “improve” the native

people: “Welch schones Feld stande den Missionaren offen, wenn

sie sich dazu bequemen wollten, unter diesen Menschen zu wohnen

 

in chapter 4.
102

und zu leben und ihre Fehler mit Liebe und Geduld zu bekampfen!”
(Eine Frauen fahrt 268).

Pfeiffer considers this white man’s burden to be literally
a white man's burden only. She thinks that European women are
unfit to do missionary work. She writes:

. . . das europaische Madchen, das sich zur Missionarin
bildet, wahlt diesen Stand haufig nur, um so schnell als
meglich versorgt zu werden. Hat die junge europaische
Frau einige Kinder, wird sie schwach und kranklich, dann
kann sie ihrem Beruf nicht mehr nachkommen und bedarf
einer Luftveranderung, wohl gar einer Reise nach Europa.
Auch die Kinder sind Schwachlinge und mfissen ...ebenfalls

dahin gebracht werden . . . Und wer bezahlt dies alles? -
Oft arme, glaubige Seelen in Europa und Nordamerika . . .
(282)

She suggests that a missionary should marry a native woman
so that the money that is spent on the European woman
missionaries can be saved. Pfeiffer’s harsh judgment about the
European women missionaries shows that she is more concerned
about the missionary movement than about a chance for the
members of her own sex to step outside family life.

Similar to Pfeiffer’s criticism of the missionary work is
her criticism of the British rule in India. Referring to the
Britisher’s treatment of Indian people she notes: “Wo der
Europaer hinkommt, will er nicht belohnen, sondern nur herrschen
und gebieten, und gewohnlich ist seine Herrschaft viel
drfickender als jene der Eingebornen” (Eine Frau fahrt 162).
This shows that Pfeiffer is aware of the European colonizing
mission. In her criticism, her sympathy is with the native

people because they are treated unjustly by the British. But

103

she does not question the colonial rule. She criticizes the
means, not the goal of the British rule: “Ach, wenn doch die
Europaer wfiBten, wie leicht sie diese guten Naturmenschen durch
Nachsicht und Freundlichkeit gewinnen konnten! Leider aber
wollen sie durch Gewalt herrschen und behandeln das arme Volk
mit Verachtung und Harte” (Eine Frau fahrt 194).

While portraying the non-Europeans, Pfeiffer occasionally
sympathizes with them. However, her feeling of superiority over
them overshadows her sympathy for them. Although Germany was
not a major colonial force and did not have colonies until the
late nineteenth century, Pfeiffer’s statements are in tune with
colonial ideology that portrays the native people as in need of
control and governance by colonial powers. The description of
the native people falls within a scientific network of the
nineteenth century that classified and systematized not only
plants and animals but also human beings. This systematization
is hierarchic in nature and places the native people at the

bottom of the order.

2. Description of Women

Because of their gender, European men did not have access
to the harem but they had expectations about the image of the
“Oriental” women that were based on the literature about the

harem, This literature built a stereotypical image of a sensual

104

“Oriental” woman.21 Billie Melman notes this fascination of the
Western audience with the harem:

From the earliest encounters between Christians and
Muslims till the present, the harem as the locus of an
exotic and abnormal sexuality fascinated Westerners. It
came to be regarded as a microcosmic Middle East,
apotheosizing the two characteristics perceived as
essentially oriental: Sensuality and violence. (60)

Pfeiffer replaces the stereotypical sensual “Oriental" women by
yet other stereotypes and objectifies the Oriental women in her
attempt to do so. She notes how her impression of Oriental
women differs from their stereotypical picture as she describes
women in Jaffa:
Sie tragen die Wasserkrfige auf dem Kopf oder der Achsel,
geradeso wie vor mehreren tausend Jahren, so wie man sie
auf den altesten Bildern gezeichnet findet. Aber von
Grazie im Gang, von Anmut in ihren Bewegungen und von
Schonheit des Kerpers oder Gesichts, wie manche
Schriftsteller behaupten, sah ich leider nichts; dagegen
Schmutz und Armut, und zwar mehr, als ich erwartete”
(Reise einer Wienerin 116).
Her description of Turkish women is: “Lebhaft, groBe Augen,
blasse Wangen, breite Gesichter, viel Korupulenz, und die Dame
ist gezeichnet” (Reise einer Wienerin 41). Pfeiffer refers to
the Turkish women as ‘Sylphengestalte’, but she is not using
this term to describe their grace or beauty. Her further
description shows that she is using this term ironically:
Nur in der Kirche und im Innern der Hauser ward mir das
Glfick zuteil, diese Sylphengestalten naher zu betrachten .
. .Allein die Weiber von sechsundzwanzig bis
achtundzwanzig Jahren sind schon sehr verblfiht und

hafllich, so daB man in den tropischen Landern immer eine
sehr groBe Zahl garstiger Gesichter und nur hin und wieder

 

21 For more on the stereotypical image of the Oriental woman
created by male writers, see Kabbani and Melman.
105

gleich einem Meteor etwas Hfibsches hervorschimmern sieht
(Reise einer Wienerin 152).

Her description of women is undifferentiated. She finds them
all equally filthy and poor:

Die Tracht der Samariterinnen und Galilaerinnen usw. ist

fiberall gleich arm, schmutzig und einfdrmig; sie tragen

nichts als dunkelblaue lange Hemden. Der Unterschied
besteht nur darin, daB sie in manchen Orten mit bedecktem
und in andern mit unbedecktem Gesicht gehen. Ubrigens
konnten sich alle vermummen, denn von schonen, reizenden

Madchen und Frauen ist wahrlich so wenig zu sehen, daB man

sie wohl mit der Laterne suchen kennte. Sie haben alle

eine braune, garstige Haut, struppige Harre und nicht so
volle Gestalten wie die Tfirkinnen (Reise einer Wienerin

176)

Although Pfeiffer describes the women as poor, her comments do
not exhibit any sympathy toward them for their plight. This
characterization of the women as filthy and poor demystifies
them and in a sense de—orientalizes them. However, Pfeiffer
replaces the exotic images of Oriental women with other
stereotypical images that are as unrealistic as the exotic
images.

Because of her gender, Pfeiffer is able to visit places
such as a harem that were not accessible to male travelers. She
visits a harem in Turkey and becomes an object of curiosity of
the women in the harem. Pfeiffer criticizes them: “Unwissend
und neugierig sind die Orientalinnen im h5chsten Grad; sie
konnen weder lesen noch schreiben, von Kenntnis einer fremden
Sprache ist schon gar keine Rede” (Reise einer Wienerin 195).
The curiosity of Oriental women is connected with their lack of
knowledge, whereas Pfeiffer’s curiosity gives her the power to

observe them. Pfeiffer’s double standard can be ascribed to her

106

understanding of herself as a superior European and looking down
upon the Oriental women as inferior to her.

While describing the women in the harem Pfeiffer takes on
the role of an observer and classifies and systematizes them.
Gazed upon, the women in the harem are denied the power of the
gaze.

Ich wurde in einen anderen Teil des Hauses geffihrt, dort

trat ich dann in ein mittelgroBes Gemach, dessen Boden mit

Matten und Teppichen fiberdeckt war und an desse Seiten

Polster lagen, auf welchen die verschiedenartigsten

Schonheiten, vermutlich aus allen Weltgegenden

zusammengerafft, zwolf bis ffinfzehn an der Zahl, saBen . .

. . Die Kleidung dieser Damen war geradeso, wie ich sie

and den Techtern des Konsuls in Jaffa beschrieben habe.

Von ausgezeichneten Schonheiten, wenn man die hier sehr

verehrte Beleibtheit nicht daffir halt, sah ich nicht viel,

wohl aber eine Einaugige, eine in diesem Land nicht
ungewohnliche Erscheinung. Sklavinnen erblickte ich da

von allen Schattierungen. (Reise einer Wienerin 195)

Pfeiffer describes these women in a group rather than
looking at them as individuals. She groups them together under
“verschiedenartigste Schonheiten.” To describe the way they are
sitting Pfeiffer uses the word ‘bunched up’ (zusammen gerafft),
which turns them into inanimate objects rather than individuals.
To further demystify the women in the harem she describes a
woman with one eye. Pfeiffer concludes that the women in the
harem are not capable of having any strong emotions since their
facial features lack any definite character. Her “knowledge”
about these women is based on visual observation that treats
them as objects to be viewed. She takes the external appearance
of these women as an indicator of their internal character:

Uberall traf ich dieselbe Unwissenheit, Neugierde und

Tragheit. Im ganzen mogen sie glficklicher sein als wir

Europaerinnen; dies schlieBe ich teils aus ihrer
107

Beleibtheit, teils aus ihren ruhigen Gesichtszfigen.

Ersteres stellt sich doch gewohnlich nur bei ruhigen oder

zufriedenen Gemfitern ein,und ihre Zfige sind so ohne allen

bestimmten, ausgesprochenen Charakter, daB ich sie

unmoglich groBer Empfindungen und Leidenschaften, weder im

Guten noch im Bdsen, fahig halte. (Reise einer Wienerin

197)

This description shows that Pfeiffer does not feel any
solidarity with Oriental women. She aligns with her identity as
a European individual rather than her identity as a woman.
Oriental women are represented as opposites to Western women.
They are described as uneducated and living in a world of
ignorance and poverty. This representation is in contrast to
the implicit self-representation of Pfeiffer as educated, having
control over her own body and having freedom to make her own
decisions. Criticizing Pfeiffer’s Eurocentric attitude toward
the Oriental women, Stefanie Ohnesorg questions: “Es ist
ebenfalls wichtig die Frage zu stellen, ob nicht ein Teil
dessen, was im Hinblick auf die Frauen-Reisen des 19.
Jahrhunderts die emanzipatorische Komponente ausmachte, nur auf
Kosten einer Verlagerung der Unterdrfickungsstrukturen auf das
kulturell Andere erkauft wurde" (271).

Pfeiffer proclaims her alliance to the European identity
as “wir Europaerinnen” (197) and differentiates herself from the
Oriental women. The native people also stress her being
European rather than her being a woman. She is treated as a
‘Fremde' rather than a woman. During Pfeiffer’s stay in

Constantinople she goes to a temple. She describes how the

Turkish people treat her: “Ohne groBe Bemfihung lieB man mich als

108

Fremde in die ersten Reihen, eine Gutmfitigkeit und Artigkeit der
Tfirken, die manchen Franken zu empfehlen ware. Und doppelt ist
diese Eigenschaft an diesem Volk zu rfihmen, da es ffir mein
Geschlecht keine Achtung hat und uns armen Wesen seiner Meinung
nach sogar die Seele abspricht” (Reise einer Wienerin 42). She
mentions her gender is only to show that the narrator is an
exception within it. She claims that she is being viewed as a
‘foreign woman’ rather than just as a ‘woman’. It shows that
she is aware of the difference between her identity as a

European and as a woman.

D. Conclusion

The identity of the narrator in Pfeiffer’s texts is multi-
layered. Trinh T. Minh-ha views identity as multiple. It is
not fixed once and for all. The markers of identity shift
according to context. Trinh rejects the uniformity and
unchangeableness of identity. She writes:

Die miBliche Situation, die durch das Uberschreiten von

Grenzen entsteht, kann nicht einfach geleugnet oder

akzeptiert werden. Man muB sich ihrer Widersprfichlichkeit

stellen. Es gibt wenig Hoffnung, diese gleichzeitige

Existenz von auBen/innen in einfachen, polarisierenden

SchwarzweiBbegriffen ins Leben zu reden. (153)

On the one hand, Pfeiffer takes on a masculine identity to
express her rebellious and adventurous self. On the other hand,
she feels the need to be accepted by society. To counterbalance

her masculine identity she takes on a feminine identity that

complies with bourgeois gender ideology. A part of her feminine

109

identity might be the result of the internalization of the
bourgeois gender ideals. However, the biographical facts about
Pfeiffer lead me to believe that Pfeiffer’s feminine identity is
more a strategy to avoid public criticism than the result of
internalization of the gender ideals. Pfeiffer rebelled in her
childhood against her mother who tried to instill feminine
values in her. After fifteen years of Pfeiffer’s marriage, she
started living separately from her husband. Most of all, she
traveled alone to different places around the world. This
indicates that Pfeiffer hardly internalized bourgeois gender
ideology. However she projects herself in her texts as a
believer in that ideology. As a result of the simultaneous
adoption of masculine and feminine identity, Pfeiffer’s self-
presentation becomes ambiguous.

In her relation to non-Europeans Pfeiffer takes on
European identity. Pfeiffer’s allegiance with her identity as a
European provides the basis for the “colonial discourse” in her
writing. It is the discourse which objectifies the other
culture and its people. Helga Watt describes Pfeiffer as a
“simple woman who has known hardship” (346). Watt thinks that
Pfeiffer “looks at the world with unsentimental eyes. She has
no part in the establishment, in the politics of nationalism, of
economic, and military conquest. She feels no obligation to
anyone but reports the truth as she sees it" (346). Pfeiffer
might not have any direct part in the establishment. She might
not have visited the foreign countries as an agent of a colonial
power, as many of her male counterparts did. Nonetheless, this

110

does not prevent her from presenting images of the Other that

are colonial in nature.

111

Chapter IV
An Analysis of Ida Hahn-Hahn’s Travel Writings

A. Introduction

A leading female author during the first half of the

nineteenth century, Hahn-Hahn launched her literary career by

writing poetry and later wrote more than a dozen novels.22 She
wrote five travelogues about her travels through Europe and the

Middle East. Her first travelogue, Jenseits der Berge (1840),

 

documents her journey through Italy by way of Switzerland.

Reisebriefe (1841) is a collection of letters that Hahn-Hahn

 

sent to her relatives and friends during her travels in the

South of France and Spain in 1841. She also wrote Erinnerungen

 

aus und an Frankreich three months after her return from France.

 

Letters that Hahn-Hahn wrote during her travels in Sweden were

published in her travelogue Ein Reiseversuch im Norden (1843).

 

Her last travelogue, Orientalische Briefe (1844), is a

 

collection of letters sent during her travels in the Near East
and Egypt to her mother, brother, sister, and her friend, Emy
Grafin Schfinburg-Wechselburg.

Hahn-Hahn’s popularity as a writer is evident in the

attention her work received from contemporary critics.23

 

22Hahn-Hahn had published three volumes of poems before she
started writing novels. She wrote thirteen novels and five
travelogues in all before converting to Catholicism in 1850.
.After her conversion to Catholicism she kept on writing novels
and tracts related to religion.

23 In 1929 Katrien von Munster mentioned over 100 of the

reviews of Hahn-Hahn’s works which appeared in the newspapers

and journals from 1835-1850 (170). A more recent account of
112

However, her popularity did not guarantee favorable reviews or
respect from her fellow writers and critics. On the contrary,
she was mocked by many writers, including Heinrich Heine,
Gottfried Keller, Joseph von Eichendorff and Theodor Fontane.
Fontane describes her as “bodenlos eitel und die Verneinung
jeder Moral. Die Karikatur des Individualismus” (20). Alluding
to Hahn-Hahn’s loss of the left eye, Heine demonstrates his
biting humor when he writes: “Wenn sie [die Weiber] schreiben,
haben sie ein Auge auf das Papier und das andre auf einen Mann
gerichtet, und dieses gilt von allen Schriftstellerinnen, mit
Ausnahme der Grafin Hahn-Hahn, die nur ein Auge hat” (453).

Speaking of Hahn-Hahn’s reception by contemporary critics,
Renate Mohrmann notes: “Wohl selten hat eine Schriftstellerin
heftigere und widerspruchvollere Reaktionen hervorgerufen und
die Gemfiter ihrer Zeitgenossen starker bewegt als diese

mecklenburgische Grafin” (Die andere Frau 85). This assessment

 

of Hahn-Hahn’s reception in the nineteenth century as
controversial seems to be true. On the one hand, Hahn-Hahn was
praised as “die Vorkampferin der Frauenemanzipation" and a
German George Sand (Prutz 254). On the other hand, she was
criticized as an author with “krankhafter Emanzipationssucht und
so exklusive-aristokratischen Tendenzen” (Barthel 560).

In reception among modern critics Hahn-Hahn is mentioned
as one of the few privileged and enlightened women during the

Vormarz who wrote novels dealing with women’s issues

 

Hahn-Hahn’s reception is given by MOhrmann (85-90) and Geiger
(17-31).
113

(Beutin 251-55). She is discussed in more detail by Friedrich

Sengle in his Biedermeierzeit. He calls her a “melancholische

 

Kreuzung von Kurtisane und Klosterschwester" (234). He denies
her originality by describing her as “ein schwer definierbares
Ragout aus Byron, Jean Paul und franzfisischen Einflfissen” (881).
Modern feminist critics such as Renate Mohrmann and Gerlinde
Geiger have discussed the emancipatory nature of Hahn-Hahn’s
novels.

More recently her travel writings have been the focus of

attention from feminist critics such as Annegret Pelz, Elke

Frederiksen and Patricia Howe.24 Both Pelz and Frederisken
emphasize Hahn-Hahn’s interest in the equality of women.
Patricia Howe compares Hahn-Hahn with other women travel
writers, Ida Pfeiffer and Fanny Lewald. She concludes that all
three writers exhibit ambivalence in their travel writing by
virtue of their gender. The feminist critics focus on gender
and conclude that Hahn-Hahn’s travel writing shares features
with other women travel writers.

However, this analysis will show that Hahn-Hahn’s
aristocratic family background and her success as a writer prior
to the publication of her travelogues give her ammunition
against the gender role expectations of society. Her stance in

Orientalische Briefe is colonial and does not indicate ambiguity

 

 

24 Besides these feminist critics, Elke Marquart provides
biographical information about Hahn-Hahn and discusses the
depiction of Middle Eastern women in Hahn-Hahn’s Orientalische
Briefe. Patricia Herminghouse looks for the reason Hahn-Hahn
might have converted to Catholicism. Carol Diethe gives
biographical information about Hahn-Hahn.

114

 

 

in her self-representation which is evident in Pfeiffer’s travel
writings.

In this analysis, I focus on the travelogue Orientalische

 

Briefe, which is a collection of letters written by Hahn-Hahn
describing her journey through the Middle East. The analysis is
divided into two parts. The first part includes Hahn-Hahn’s
self-representation and the second part focuses on the
presentation of the Other. The analysis of Hahn-Hahn’s self-
representation includes a discussion about her motivation for
travel, her use of the genre of letters and her authoritative
narrative stance in the travelogue. The discussion about the
presentation of the Other deals with Hahn-Hahn’s presentation of

the Orient and the non—Europeans.

B. Self-representation in Hahn-Hahn’s Orientalische Briefe

In August 1843 Hahn-Hahn and her companion Baron Adolf
Bystram set out on a journey to the Middle East that would last
for almost nine months. However, she rarely mentions Bystram in
any of the letters sent to her relatives and a friend. This
might be because Hahn-Hahn felt it improper to mention him since
they were living together without being married. Another
possibility is that Hahn-Hahn wanted to give her readers the
impression that she was traveling alone on her journey. This
would have made her account of the journey unusual and thus more

interesting.

115

 

When Hahn-Hahn set out on her journey she was divorced
from her husband, had handed her two children over to foster
parents, and was receiving alimony from her ex-husband. She had
written several books and was established as a successful
author. Her success as an author, her aristocratic origin and
her financial independence differentiate her self-perception
from Pfeiffer’s understanding of herself. The gender ambiguity
in Pfeiffer’s self-representation is absent in Hahn-Hahn’s

Orientalische Briefe. Her stance in the letters is mostly

 

masculine and colonial. That is, she portrays the narrator as
having traits, such as objectivity and self-assertiveness, that
were considered masculine in bourgeois gender ideology. Rarely
is there evidence of strategies to make the writing appear
feminine. The following discussion will show in what ways Hahn-
Hahn’s narrative stance is different than Pfeiffer’s. It will
also show that in spite of the differences in their self-
presentation, both authors create images of native people that

are colonial in nature.

1. Motives for Travel

In the first letter in Orientalische Briefe, which is

 

addressed to her mother, Hahn-Hahn writes about the motive
behind her journey:

Wer das Reisen wie eine oberflachliche Zerstreuung
betrachtet, der gehe nicht in den Orient. Vergnfigen
bietet er nicht, nur Lehren und Offenbarungen. Das habe
ich vorausgesetzt, sie gesucht und gefunden, und darum bin
ich vollkommen mit meiner Reise zufrieden, nur freilich
wieder in meiner Art und Weise: ohne Ekstase und
Ubertreibung. (16)

116

 

[F .4.

Hahn-Hahn insists that she is not undertaking this journey for
her personal enjoyment. She claims that she is searching for
‘teachings’ and ‘revelation,’ which gives her journey a
religious character. She writes to her friend, Grafin
Schonburg-Wechselburg, from Constantinople about her search for
the ‘divine light’:
Am Gestade des Meeres, dem Gebirg gegenfiber, unter dem
freien lichten Himmel, kann ich doch ungestfirt an meinen
Gott denken: denn da ist Licht ringsum, und nirgends jener
beangstigende dunkle Wust: da ist seine Offenbarung
unverzerrt durch die Hand, ungetrfibt durch die schwache
Erkenntnis des Menschen. O diese Sehnsucht nach Licht!
Sie zieht mich in den fernen Orient, sie ffihrt mich fiber
Meere und Berge, sie drangt mich dahin wo jemals
Wundertaten und Wunderwerke niedergelegt sind, welche
einen Strahl des Lichts umschlieflen, wie die Frucht den
Kern zugleich umgibt und aus ihm geboren wird. (64)
Search for the ‘divine light’ is the aim of her journey.
She hopes to find the ‘divine truth’ in the Orient. This seems
to be a strategy used by Hahn—Hahn to justify her journey
because a religious journey was the most accepted form of travel
for women. However, Hahn-Hahn notes that she is not overzealous
about her piousness.
In contrast to Pfeiffer, Hahn-Hahn does not express
feelings of overwhelming joy upon visiting religious places.
She differentiates herself from the tradition of religious women
travelers when she writes to her brother: “. . . mit nichten
[bin ich] gesonnen eine Pilgerfahrt im Sinn mittelalterlicher

Frfimmigkeit mit freiwilligen Entbehrungen und Kasteiungen

durchwebt anzutreten. Was die Kasteiungen betrifft, mein lieber

117

«n:

"r

"L

5 .

Dinand, da bin ich zu sehr ein Kind meines weichlichen und
bequemen Jahrhunderts; ich scheue sie vom ganzem Herzen” (89).

Although Hahn-Hahn appears to be pious while writing to
her mother in her first letter, she reveals to her mother later
on that she is not very passionate about religion. She
describes her muted reaction after coming to Jerusalem. She
notes: “Unsere Zeiten sind alt und kalt geworden, unfahig
solcher Ekstasen” (177). She concedes that nobody can remain
indifferent after coming to Jerusalem. However she insists:
“Aber kopffiber stfirze ich mich nicht hinein” (177).

The missionary zeal in Pfeiffer’s attitude toward people
of other religions is rarely seen in Hahn-Hahn’s remarks about
non-Christians. While going to Constantinople on a ship, she
sees some Turkish people praying according to their Muslim
faith. As she watches them pray, she questions if all the
religions are not equal in front of God:

Wenn man das [Gebet] so in der Nahe sieht, fragt man sich

wie es moglich ist, sich um dieser Formen willen zu hassen

oder zu verachten, da ja alle dem Grundgedanken
entsprungen sind die Seele reiner und hOher zu stimmen.

Aber allerdings fragt man sich auch, ob denn eine Form

besser sei als die andere. Kniet nicht der Katholik wie

der Mohammedaner? Liest nicht der Protestant wie der

Hebraer? Ist nicht Kniebeugung wie Gebet-oder Gesangsbuch

Ausdruck der namlichen Andacht, dem namlichen Gott

zugewendet? Wir konnen wohl finden, daB eine Form mehr

als die andre grade unserer eigentfimlichen Innerlichkeit
entspricht, und daher ffir uns wahre ist; allein ob sie vor

Gott die einzigwahre, ist doch wohl mehr wie zweifelhaft.

(23)

Later on we see that the tolerance that Hahn-Hahn shows
toward the religion of the Turkish people does not translate

into tolerance toward their culture. Hahn-Hahn claims that she

118

 

has no prejudice against Muslims because of their religion. She
writes to her friend from Constantinople:

Ich bin im Gebiet und unter dem Gebot des Islam. Ich bin

hergekommen ohne Vorurteile ffir oder gegen ihn: ich

bemitleide nicht den Mohammedaner um seines Glaubens
willen, und ich bewundere ihn nicht. Es ist sein Gesetz,
das sein Prophet ihm gebracht: das scheint mir kein Grund

weder ffir Verehrung noch ffir Verabsetzung. (57)

Hahn-Hahn’s lack of zealousness for Christianity, her
muted reaction upon reaching holy places and her refusal to
associate herself with other religious travelers show that Hahn-
Hahn is not trying to justify her travel by stating religion as
the motive. She claims that she is undertaking the journey to
gain knowledge. In a letter to her mother, she writes:

Was ich noch nicht kenne -- gerade das mochte ich

kennenlernen; denn kennen ist wissen und Wissen ist eine

noch schonere Sache als Freude fiber den St. Stephan, fiber
die bacchantischen Jubelwalzer von StrauB und fiber die

Venetianischen Meistergemalde im Belvedere. Allein ich

kann nun einmal nicht anders als streben und immer

streben, und daher geht mir der Drang zur Erkenntnis fiber

das, was ich bereits erkannt habe. (16-17)

Hahn-Hahn does not disguise the cause of her journey with
religion as do many other women travelers including Pfeiffer.
Here Hahn-Hahn contrasts knowledge with art, something that
women were supposed to be interested in, and states that the
pursuit of her journey is to gain knowledge. To undertake a
journey to seek knowledge and moreover to state it openly in the
travel writing was quite extraordinary for a woman traveler in

nineteenth century German society. Hahn-Hahn is setting out on

a journey to educate herself. Speaking of the tradition of the

119

 

“Bildungsreise” in the eighteenth century, Albert Meier points
out that pursuit of knowledge and usefulness of the journey for
society were two important features of “Bildungsreise” (284).

In addition to self-education, Hahn-Hahn also sets as the aim of
her journey the search for hope for European society. Thus, her
journey becomes a “Bildungsreise” with an added social
dimention. In a letter to her brother written from

Constantinople Hahn-Hahn explains that she is undertaking this

journey to learn about an ancient civilization:25

Nach allem was ich hier hore, kommt mir fiberhaupt vor, als
mfisse man sich recht fest einpragen und immer vor Augen
halten, weshalb man sie [die Reise] macht, um nicht haufig
herabgestimmt und enttauscht zu werden. Ich mach sie um
die Statten kennen zu lernen, auf denen einst groBe
Zivilisationen gleich Blfiten aus dem Kern ihrer Religion
hervor- und untergingen, als der Samenstaub jener Blfiten

taub ward. Ich mache sie um die Statte zu sehen, wo
unsere Zivilisation, die vielseitigste von allen die je
gewesen, ihren Ursprung hat. (88)

Hahn—Hahn takes on the role of a traveler setting out to
seek knowledge from the “Oriental past” that will give hope to
Europe. She writes: “Hoffnungen will ich, nur Hoffnungen! . . .
nicht ffir mich, nicht ffir andere, aber ffir uns alle . . . Also
nicht um mir Erinnerungen -- sondern um Hoffnungen zu sammeln,
Hoffnungen die sich nicht im geringsten auf mich oder meine
Person beziehen, mache ich diese Reise” (88-9).

Hahn-Hahn seems to be disturbed about the socio-political

situation in Europe. Always aware of her aristocratic origin,

 

25 Hahn-Hahn’s description of the Orient as an ancient
civilization in the past in contrast with the modern
civilization in Europe is discussed in more detail in the next
section (20-26).

120

 

Hahn-Hahn could not reconcile herself with the ideals of the
revolution of 1848. She hopes to find a solution for the
situation in Europe by turning to the Orient. The Orient
reminds her of the historical process in which the European
civilization was formed from the ruins of the ancient Oriental
civilization. She hopes that the historical process will
continue and from the uncertain situation in Europe, a new phase
will begin:
Bin ich aber im Orient, betrachte ich die Ruinen des
Sonnentempels zu Balbek, oder die Omars-Moschee fiber dem
Tempel Salomons, oder den Sand fiber den Wunderwerken von
Memphis und Theben- bedenke ich dabei, daB so viel GroBe,
Macht und Herrlichkeit untergehen, und daB dennoch unsere
ganze groBe okzidentalische Bildung frisch und neu ihnen
folgen konnte; so gibt diese Betrachtung mir Zuversicht
ffir eine bis jetzt noch unbekannte aber gewisse und in
ihrer Art vollkommene Phase, die neu fiber den Trfimmern
unsrer Welt beginnen wird. (88)
Thus Hahn-Hahn presents herself as a traveler who has set
out on her journey for her personal quest of knowledge. She

further ennobles her journey by setting as her aim a search for

hope for a restless European society.

2. Genre of Letters

In the mid-eighteenth century letter writing became a
popular literary activity conducted by women. Renate M6hrmann
describes how popular letter writing became in the eighteenth
century: “In allen Lebenslagen begannen die Frauen plotzlich,
Briefe zu schreiben, ja der Briefwechsel wurde zu einer ihrer

wichtigsten Angelegenheiten fiberhaupt. Hier schien sich ein

121

NA
. .3
have

a:

jahrhundertelang zurfickgehaltenes Formulierungsbedfirfnis
gewaltsam Bahn brechen und austoben zu wollen” (Die andere Frau
20). Reinhard Nickisch notes that letter writing was mainly
popular among the educated bourgeois and aristocratic women
(390). It must have given these women an opportunity to form
contacts and friendships. Beyond that, it also gave them a
chance to engage in a literary activity without stepping
conspicuously into the public domain.

Barbara Becker-Cantarino points out that these letters
were rarely meant to be read by the receiver alone (Leben als
Text 85). Reading the letters aloud in the circle of friends
and family was a popular form of entertainment, especially
during eighteenth century. Becker-Cantarino explains that the
intimate form of letters was especially suited for women:

. . . der Brief [war] wegen seines Inhalts und seiner Form

wichtig. Seine offene, ‘natfirliche’ gesprachsnahe Form .

. . und sein lebensnaher, oft privater, zeitgenossischer

Inhalt hatte gerade dieses Ausdrucksmittel den Frauen

zuganglich gemacht . . . . Die Briefform ermoglichte eine

direkte Anrede und damit Beteiligung der Leserin an den
jeweiligen Lebensfragen, ein wichtiger Aspekt der

Briefliteratur als Kommunikation. (99)

By writing letters women had access to public expression and yet
it appeared justifiable that they remained in the private domain
because of the intimate nature of letter writing. Thus, they
were able to disguise their entry into the public domain by
using the genre of letters.

However, it is important to note that the letter form was
not used exclusively by women writers. Annette Deeken and

Monika Bésel point out: “Briefe und Tagebficher sind keineswegs

122

ausschlieBlich weibliche Ausdrucksmittel, . . . Zur Zeit der
Romantik und des Jungen Deutschland gar wird die Briefkultur von
Feuilletonisten wie Heine und Bdrne bis zum UberdruB gepflegt”
(64). Even though letter writing was often used by male
writers, Deeken and Bosel concede: “weibliche Autoren allerdings
weisen eine groBere Kontinuitat im Gebrauch der betont
subjektiven und ungezwungenen Formen des Schreibens auf, und
dies gilt insbesondere auch ffir die Reiseliteratur" (64). It
can be said that both men and women used the genre of letters,
although women used it more frequently than men. Women mostly
used it as a disguise to enter the public domain of writing,
especially travel writing, because in travel writing they were
breaking the taboo against traveling as well as writing.

Like many other women travelers, Hahn-Hahn chooses the

genre of letters for Orientalische Briefe. However, she does

 

not seem to be using it to disguise her entry into the public

domain of writing. Prior to publishing Orientalische Briefe,

 

Hahn-Hahn was already a successful author. She had written

three volumes of poems and several novels. Orientalische Briefe

 

was her fifth travelogue. She might have chosen this genre
because of the structural connection between Hahn-Hahn’s travel

writing and the genre of letters. In Orientalische Briefe Hahn-

 

Hahn reports relatively isolated and unconnected episodes
describing her journey. By writing letters to different
addressees about these episodes Hahn-Hahn is able to fit these
unconnected episodes in the framework of journey without having

one central theme.

123

Another reason for Hahn-Hahn to chose the genre of letters
might have been the intimate setting which it offered. For
example, if Hahn-Hahn had chosen the form of an essay to report
about her travel, her travelogue would have lacked the dialogue
character of the letters. The narrator would have emerged as a
figure who knew more than her readers, and this would have
created distance between the readers and the narrator. By
writing letters Hahn-Hahn had a more direct contact with her
readers because the letters created a bond between her and the
readers. Speaking about the intimate atmosphere created by
travelogues in letter form, Elke Frederiksen points out that
travel writing in the form of letters is like a conversation
that reduces the distance between the traveler and the friends
who have stayed back home (Blick in die Ferne 111). The
conversational style is evident in many of Hahn-Hahn’s letters.

With this style she creates an impression that she is taking her

readers along with her to the places she visits.26
When Hahn—Hahn enters into a dialogue with her addressee

she is also communicating with the readers. In a letter for her
friend, Emy Schonburg-Wechselburg, she writes: “Meine liebe
Herzens Emy, ich komme ja gar nicht dazu Ihnen zu schreiben! Bis
jetzt auf der ganzen Reise einen einzigen Brief! Ich denke
immer: es ist ffir Euch alle, gleichviel an wen adressiert . . ."
(122). Hahn-Hahn does not refer to her readers directly as

‘Leser’ or ‘Leserinnen' in this or any other letters.

 

26 In a letter to her brother she urges him to come along with
her to the slave market (49). She invites her mother to join

124

L1)

(3

n:

Nonetheless, ‘Euch’ in this letter, presumably used for her
other addressees (including her mother, brother and sister), can
also be for her readers. Hahn-Hahn does not indicate either in
her letters or in the introduction that these letters were meant
only for a private audience. Therefore the reader also becomes
one of the addressees.

Nevertheless Hahn-Hahn chooses the topics in her letters
according to her designated addressees. She writes to her
female addressees about the historical places that she visits,
reporting about the customs of the people as well as nature and
art. Letters to her mother are mostly enthusiastic and joyful.
She writes to her mother in the introduction: “Meine liebe
Herzensmutter, da sind nun meine samtlichen Briefe beieinander,

und ich bringe sie Dir jetzt alle, weil sie Dir das grfiBte

Vergnfigen machen werden . . . Herzensmutter, wenn Dir die Briefe
ein Paar angenehme Stunden machten -- wie froh war’ ich!" (15-
16).

Hahn-Hahn dedicates the collection of all the letters to
her mother and hopes to bring joy to her. She tries to bring

her joy by giving her colorful descriptions of her surroundings

and people.27 By writing joyful letters to her mother as well

as other female addressees, Hahn-Hahn indirectly conforms to the

 

her to see Constantinople (28).

27 See for example pages 20, 26-29,95-96 in which Hahn-Hahn
describes different cities.
125

idea that the function of literature for women was only to

provide poetic pleasure to them.28

On some occasions she expresses her concern about not
appearing “ladylike” to her mother. For example, Hahn-Hahn
describes in a letter to her mother how she is forced to give up
European customs:

Ich ffirchte wirklich, daB Du Dich in Gedanken ein wenig
meiner schamst. Trinken aus der Flasche eines arabischen
Halbbanditen! Essen ein Stfick Brot und Kase im Sattel
sitzend! Ja, Mamachen, und dazu zog ich meine Bluse gar
noch aus und ritt in Hemdarmel, weil die Hitze mich
erdrfickte. Das alles klingt bei uns unerhort,
erschreckend, untunlich, weil es eben bei uns nicht
vorfallen kann (183)

While writing to her friend, Emy Schonburg-Wechselburg,
Hahn-Hahn describes how she tries to be more practical than
‘ladylike’. She writes to her about her new costume:

Das Klfigste was ich seit langer Zeit getan, ist, daB ich
aus Konstantinopel meine gezierte Kammerjungfer
zurfickschickte, weil dergleichen Leute nicht ffir den
Libanaon und die Wfiste taugen; und daB ich mir in Wien
einen vollstandigen nicht Manner- aber Knabenanzug machen
lieB, ein costume de gamin von groBter Einfachheit, Bluse
und Pantalon von staubfarbenem Wollenstoff, rot und weiB
gestreifte Hemden, runder Strohhut, geknopfte Schuhe von
coutil- ganz namenlos bequem ffir diese Reise, wo man im
Zelt, also in Kleidern schlaft, und sehr steile und
steinige Wege zu FuB bergauf oder bergab macht. Das lange
Reitkleid und unser gewohnliches Kleid sind beide
vollkommen unpraktisch . . . . (123)

Hahn-Hahn describes her lady-in-waiting as “affected” and
incapable of surviving in the desert. Hahn-Hahn, in contrast to

her lady-in-waiting, is strong and practical. Rather than

 

28 See the section on educational and professional possibilities
for women in Chapter 2, especially page 49.
126

trying to appear “ladylike,” Hahn-Hahn describes how she is
ready to wear masculine clothes.

Instead of focusing on the topics that were related to the
private sphere of family, Hahn-Hahn also writes about topics,
such as the history and politics of the country she visits,
geographical places and the architecture of the buildings that
she sees. For example she writes to her sister about the Dead
Sea (193) and the Nile (240). She writes about politics in
Europe as well the countries she visits (202, 240, 258). In a
letter to her mother she writes: “Jeder der von seinen Reisen
erzahlt, hat ein Steckenpferd worauf er sich mit besonderm
Vergnfigen tummelt; das meine ist die Architektur” (250). By not
restricting herself with the topics related to house and family,
Hahn-Hahn steps into the masculine public domain.

Hahn-Hahn’s brother is the only male addressee of her
letters. It is interesting to see that when Hahn-Hahn first
visits a harem or a slave market, she chooses her brother as the
addressee. These were the places to which Hahn-Hahn had access
because of her gender. Speaking about Hahn-Hahn’s letters to
her brother, Patricia Howe notes: “In Briefen an ihren Bruder
kommt die Konkurrenz zwischen Geschwistern zum Ausdruck, denn
sie schildert ihren Besuch im Harem und ihr Besteigen der groBen
Pyramide von Cheops in neckendem Ton, der das Geffihl der
Uberlegenheit nicht fiberhfiren laflt” (316). Hahn-Hahn's
“teasing" tone in the letters to her brother is not just out of
sibling rivalry as Howe states. By addressing the description
of the harem to her brother, Hahn-Hahn is indirectly addressing

127

it to the European male audience. As I will demonstrate later,
Hahn-Hahn tries to demolish the image of the harem based on male
fantasy and provides the reader with her own description of

Oriental women.

3. Authoritative Narrative Figure

The narrator in Hahn-Hahn’s letters appears authoritative
for two main reasons. The first is the absence of any
strategies to make her text appear feminine and the second is
her frequent claims of objectivity. As we saw earlier, Hahn-
Hahn does not disguise her motive for traveling. She writes her
travelogue in the genre of letters, which were considered
feminine. However, the topics in her letters are not limited to
the private sphere family. Thus Hahn-Hahn might have chosen a
feminine form for her travelogue, but she does not try to make
its content appear feminine. Hahn-Hahn is not apologetic or
modest about her writing. In dedicating the collection of
letters to her mother she writes:

Ferner bist Du so daran gewohnt, Nachsicht mit mir haben

zu mfissen, daB Dir die manigfachen Unvollkommenheiten,

Widersprfiche und Inkonsequenzen, die untrennbar von einer

solchen Briefsammlung sind, nicht st6rend auffallen

werdenm Denn wenn ich auch bereit bin meinen Briefen
tausend Unvollkommenheiten anzuerkennen, so muB ich doch
die scheinbaren Widersprfiche und Inkonsequenzen ein wenig
in Schutz nehmen, weil sie wirklich nur scheinbar sind.

(15)

Although it might seem that Hahn-Hahn is accepting

shortcomings in her writing, she is doing so only indirectly.

128

She is not really admitting to any shortcomings in her writing
but only to their appearance.

In a letter to her sister she exclaims: “ Gott, was ist es
ffir ein Glfick schreiben zu kOnnen!” (176). She admits that
writing is “eine auBerst angenehme Beschaftigung" (176). In
contrast to Pfeiffer, who distances herself from other women
writers and claims that she is not a writer, Hahn-Hahn openly
admits the joy of writing.

Hahn-Hahn establishes herself as an independent and self-
assertive person. She writes to her mother:

Daffir, daB ich meinen Glauben, meine Ansicht, meine

Meinung mit der vollkommensten Unbefangenheit, ohne Hehl

und ohne Rficksicht bei jeder Gelegenheit ausspreche, bitte

ich Dich nicht um Gnade; denn obwohl Du auf der weiten

Gotteswelt die einzige Person bist, die mich imponiert,

hast Du mich dennoch immer meine eignen Wege gehen lassen,

so fern und fremd sie den Deinen sein mogen, und mir eine
selbststandige Entwicklung gegont, deren Resultat mein

Glaube und meine Meinungen sind. (15)

Hahn-Hahn is not apologetic about having her own
independent opinions. She portrays the narrator as an
independent person who has chosen her own way of life and has
formed her own opinions. She values freedom more than life.
Pitying an eagle kept in a cage she writes: “Ich meines Teils
bin ffir Freiheit, ffir schmale Kost und kurzes Leben” (19). By
denying feminine modesty and emphasizing her independence Hahn-
Hahn presents herself as an authoritative person.

This authority is further strengthened by her explicit

Claim of objectivity and the implicit claim of trustworthiness.

Elke Frederiksen thinks that the genre of letter itself creates

129

 

the aura of authenticity, in the sense of reliability, in its
content: “Durch seinen scheinbar intimen Charakter weckt der
Reisebrief die Neugierde des Lesepublikums und verleiht ein
grfiBeres MaB an Authentizitat” (Blick in die Ferne 111). Letter
writing is a dialog between the author and the recipient (the
reader). The appearance of one-on-one contact between the
author and the readers gives reliability to the authorial
perspective and the content of the letters. In the context of

the reputation for unreliability that travel writing always

had,29 Hahn-Hahn tries to differentiate herself from other
travel writers by creating trust among her readers. In addition
to this intrinsic reliability, Hahn-Hahn tries to make her texts
even more reliable by claiming objectivity. She wants to see
everything with a “gutes unbestechliches Auge" (97) and
describes it “ungeschminkt wie sie [die Situation] ist” (222).
She assures her mother that her descriptions are always true
because she is “zu gewissenhaft um es zu schreiben, wo es nicht
der Fall ist ...” (212). She writes to her mother:
Ich hoffe, daB all meine Beschreibungen von Konstantinopel
sehr der Wahrheit treu sind, weil ich ganz wie ein
Neuling, ohne Vorurteile ffir oder wider, hergekommen bin.
Das ist in Europa fast unmoglich! Auf irgend eine Weise
interessiert man sich dort bereits lange vorher ffir das

Land in das man reist; aber dieses ist uns im Grunde
ganzlich fremd, oder war es wenigstens mir dermaBen, daB

 

29 Speaking about development of the genre of travel writing,
Peter Brenner notes: "Reisende genieBen seit je einen schlechten
Ruf. Nicht nur Reisende lfigen, aber ihr Verhaltnis zur Wahrheit
wurde stets im besonderen MaBe angezweifelt. Der Reisende als
Lfigner und der Reisebericht als eine Gattung, deren
Wahrheitsgehalt wenig Vertrauen verdient, gehoren zu den Topoi,
welche die Reiseliteratur seit ihren antiken Anfangen begleitet
haben" (14).

130

ich nicht weiB, ob schon irgend jemand eine Beschriebung

von Konstantinopel gemacht hat. (94)

Hahn-Hahn denies any previous knowledge of Constantinople.
Gabriele Habinger thinks that this denial of “Vorwissen und
Bildung” is “Zugestandnis an das bfirgerliche Weiblichkeitsideal”
by Hahn-Hahn (Anpassung und Widerspruch 181). By denying any

previous knowledge of the Orient, Hahn-Hahn might appear
to be conforming to the bourgeois ideal of femininity.
Nonetheless, it is logical to conclude that Hahn-Hahn is denying
any previous knowledge of Orient to stress her objectivity,
which was considered a masculine trait. Conforming to bourgeois

ideals does not seem to be her primary concern.

4. Conclusion

It is likely that Hahn-Hahn’s self-presentation in

Orientalische Briefe is shaped by her awareness of her success

 

as an author and by her aristocratic origin. Because of her
financial independence she is not greatly subjected to the
societal pressures which forced other women writers like
Pfeiffer to adopt a feminine voice. The gender ambivalence in
Pfeiffer’s text is almost absent in Hahn-Hahn’s letters. Hahn-
Hahn presents the narrator as having traits that were considered
masculine by gender ideology. Hahn-Hahn’s masculine stance
becomes clear by the narrator’s emphasis on her independence and

her claims of objectivity and authenticity.

131

Hahn-Hahn does not limit her description to the topics
that were considered proper for women. She treats a wide
variety of subjects such as politics, history and architecture
that were outside the private sphere of home and family life.
Whereas Pfeiffer disclaims any political expertise, Hahn-Hahn
freely writes her thoughts on these subjects. Instead of self-
effacement Hahn-Hahn displays assertiveness. She is not modest
about her writing.

Hahn-Hahn assumes a self-assertive masculine stance in her
self-presentation. However she does not try to show that she
possesses the masculine traits of strength and endurance as
Pfeiffer does. Pfeiffer tries to mix an element of adventure in
the description of her journey, perhaps in order to appeal to
reader expectations. Hahn-Hahn, on the other hand, mentions in
several letters that her journey has been completely safe
without any adventures.

There might be several reasons for Hahn-Hahn to depict her
journey as safe and free of hazards. Firstly, as a member of an
aristocratic family Hahn-Hahn had adequate financial resources
to have a relatively comfortable journey. She had access to
more people and places with the help of the several
recommendation letters that she carried with her. Not only
could she live in better places than Pfeiffer, but she could
also afford the services of an interpreter during most of her
journey and was able to have conversations with other people.
Unlike Pfeiffer who was traveling alone, Hahn-Hahn was traveling
with her companion. Thus her experience of the journey might,

132

in fact, have been more comfortable and less treacherous than
Pfeiffer’s journey.

In addition, Hahn—Hahn might be trying to show her control
over the situation by stressing that nothing can pose any danger
to her. In the very first letter that is addressed to her
mother she describes how safe her journey has been, contrary to
her own expectations:

Wie ganz unter meiner Erwartung die Beschwerden, Gefahren,

Drang-und Mfihsale dieser Reise gewesen sind, kann ich Dir

gar nicht genug wiederholen. Ich muB immer lachen, wenn

man mich jetzt fiberall wie eine von den Toten Erstandene
empfangt, mitleidvoll nach groBen Fahrlichkeiten fragt,
die mir nicht wiederfahren sind, und den Mut bewundert,
den ich nicht Gelegenheit gehabt habe, zu zeigen. Weder

Unfalle, noch Stdrungen, noch Krankheiten haben uns

getroffen. (15-16)

Hahn-Hahn shows how her own expectations, as well as the
expectations of other people, about a journey to the Orient were
full of apprehension. However by describing how different her
experience was from these expectations, she makes her travel
writing unique. She writes to her friend after reaching
Lebanon: “Da sitze ich so ruhig und wohlbehalten am FuB des
Lebanon, . . . , keine Gefahren hab’ ich auf der weiten Reise
fiberstanden, keine Schrecknisse haben mich bedroht, kein Finger
hat mir weh getan” (103). Nothing can threaten Hahn-Hahn. She
feels safe and secure during the journey. She writes to her
sister that she remains in good spirits : “Wo es fiberall von
Raubern wimmeln soll und wo ich keine Stecknadel verloren habe,

hatte ich und habe noch jetzt den besten Mut” (166). Later on

she writes to her mother that she has not encountered a single

133

adventure: “Auch inzwischen (werde ich) Dir meinen Reisebericht
machen, der vier Tage umfaBt, aber nur sehr wenig was des
Erzahlens wert ware, und nicht ein einziges Abenteur!” (177).
Hahn-Hahn’s frequent references to the lack of dangers in her
journey emphasize her control over the situation.

Hahn-Hahn’s self-presentation is more consistent than
Pfeiffer’s in its masculine stance. However, her presentation
of the Other is not qualitatively different from Pfeiffer’s. In 7“
her presentation of the Other she shows awareness of her
identity as European. She assumes a position of superiority
toward the non-Europeans and defines them in a way that is by

colonial in nature.

C. Representation of the Other

Hahn-Hahn investigates topics such as the harem, the slave
market, and the native people in other countries. In her
description of the Other she is aware of her European identity.
When she sets out for her journey she writes to her mother:
“Bald nun werde ich wissen, wie der Orient sich im Auge einer
Tochter des Okzidents abspiegelt” (17). She claims to be
objective and without prejudice. However, her presentation of
the Other shows that her perception of the non-Europeans is
based on her own sense of superiority. She constructs images of
the Other that define the (better) self of the white Europeans.
Hahn-Hahn’s depiction of the Orient echos the dominant ideas

about the Orient in the nineteenth century. She views the

134

 

Orient as static and belonging to the past and the non-Europeans
as primitive people. Her attitude of superiority toward
Oriental women is more shaped by her European identity than by

her gender.

1. Description of the Orient

Hahn-Hahn’s presentation of the Orient oscillates between

enchantment and disappointment. Hahn-Hahn is dissatisfied with

conditions in Europe30 and she hopes to find a solution in the
Orient. She writes: “In Europa sieht es so hoffnungslos aus, so
unruhig. Keinem ist wohl auf seinem Platz, und er sucht in der
Stille oder Offentlich einen anderen. Alles was besteht soll
umgeandert, oder umgebildet, wenn nicht gar umgestoBen werden”

(88). She is unhappy with the lack of freedom in Europe: “In

Europa gibts keine freie Luft weder physisch noch geistig -- und
darum keine Freiheit” (202). She comes to the Orient in search
of hope.

Hahn-Hahn sees the Orient as the source of civilization
which represents Europe’s past. She has the preconceived notion
of the Biblical Orient in her mind. Therefore she interprets
even the scenery in the same way. She describes a small village
on the way to Bethlehem as “unglaublich passend ffir die

biblische Idylle der Ruth, als Schauplatz ffir die Kinderspiele

 

30 Hahn-Hahn was unhappy with liberalism and against the ideals
of the Revolution of 1848. In Von Babylon nach Jerusalem Hahn-
Hahn characterizes the three centuries from the Reformation to
the revolution in 1848/49 as the worst Germany has ever known
(50). For more on Hahn-Hahn's move toward conservative

 

135

des Hirtenknaben David, und als eine grfine Wiege ffir das
gottgesegneteste aller Kinder” (210). With a biblical View of

the Orient she writes:

Von dem Weltteil der ist, will ich zu dem, der war; aus
der europaischen Gegenwart in die orientalische
Vergangenheit. Da mfissen Traurigkeiten, Wfisten, Ruinen,
Desolationen herrschen, und einzeln und einsam, wie Sterne
aus dem Wolkenhimmel, mfissen hier und da majestatische,
trostereiche, segenvolle Erinnerungen auftauchen, an
welche der Geist seine Hoffnungen knfipft, und dasjenige
was sein wird aus dem was gewesen ist herausspinnt” (88).
The Orient is presented as “past” whereas Europe
represents the “present.” The Orient is full of sadness and
desolation and ruins. However, the Orient offers hope to Hahn-
Hahn because she recognizes the historical process through which
the Occidental world emerged out of these ruins. Although Hahn-
Hahn is unhappy with the socio-political situation in Europe,
she is certain that a new phase will begin from the uncertain
situation. Europe has the potential for a future whereas the
Orient is fixed in the past. The presentation of the Orient, as
a place full of ruins and lifeless deserts, a place belonging to
the past, builds a contrast to the presentation of Europe as a
place belonging to the future where new life can begin. Her
argument describing a fictional conversation between the Orient
and the Occident clearly describes this contrast. The Orient is
stagnant but the Occident is flowing, moving forward:
Der Orient spricht: ‘Du warest tot ohne mich! Das Prinzip
alles Lebens: das Licht - der Keim jeder Gesinnung: Die

Religionen gehen von mir aus, wie der Sonnenstrahl.’ - Und
der Okzident spricht: ‘Ich aber habe das Prinzip

 

political views see M6hrmann (Die andere Frau 151-54) and
Herminghouse (261-68).
136

verarbeitet, den Keim zur Blfite gebracht. Du bist tot wie
die Blume, welche dahinwelkt nachdem sie ihren Samen
gestreut hat. Ich lebe, denn in mir ist Bewegung’. (25)

Hahn-Hahn represents the typical European point of View,

especially Hegelian, in her presentation of the Orient.31 She
pictures the Orient at an earlier stage of development than
EurOpe. Thus her description of the Orient as the “origin of
civilization" does not redeem the Orient from its image as a
stagnant place. Speaking of the depiction of the Orient in
nineteenth century German travel writing, Veronika Bernard
points out: “Was im diskutierten Orientbild allerdings fehlt,
sind die zukunftsorientierten Elemente. Man erwartet keine
neuen Impulse, sondern das Wiederfinden, die Wiederbelebung
bereits dagewesener, an die man sich lediglich nicht mehr
erinnert hat” (122). Hahn-Hahn’s presentation of the Orient
lacks any references to the future.

Hahn-Hahn’s depiction of the Orient is based on her

previous knowledge about it. Her knowledge is partly based on

the popular book Arabian Nights as well as travelogues.32 It

 

has been generally assumed that the Arabian Nights were first

 

introduced to the West in 1704 when the Frenchman Antoine
Galland published the first volume of his book. Melman asserts

that the Western audience became familiar with the imaginary,

 

31 See the first chapter, especially pages 16-17 for more on
Hegel’s view on the Orient.

32 Hahn-Hahn indicates that she is familiar with the travelogue

by Mary Montague, Letters from the East (Orientalische Briefe
89).

 

137

exotic Orient through the Arabian Nights (63). The Arabian

 

Nights conjured up images of harems and veiled Oriental women.
Hahn-Hahn expects to find a fairy-tale-like atmosphere in
the Orient. Even before going there she associates the Orient
with a fairy tale and contrasts it with European civilization
and culture. Prior to her journey, during Hahn-Hahn’s stay in
Vienna, she visits Byron Carl Hfigel who has a collection of
articles from India, the Middle East, as well as China. Hahn-
Hahn is fascinated to see his collection of aromatic plants,
birds and lamps. The collection seems to her like a fairy tale
from Arabian Nights: “Wie in Marchen aus Tausend und einer Nacht
war es [die Sammlung]; auch doppelt feenhaft erschien es neben
all dem Komfort europaischer Zivilisation und Bildung” (19).
This shows her expectations and previous ‘knowledge’ about
the countries she is about to visit. It also contradicts her
claim of objectivity. She wants to be true to the reality in
her description but she already has a preconceived notion about

the Orient, based on popular sources such as the Arabian Nights

 

that painted a very unreal picture of the Orient.

This association of the Orient with a fairy tale continues
throughout her journey. Hahn-Hahn often describes her first
impressions of cities as in a fairy tale. They seem to be
magical, mystical, idyllic -- almost dream like. Upon coming to
Constantinople, Hahn-Hahn writes to her mother: “Jetzt in den
stillen Mondabend hinaus zu schauen, das ist wie ein Traum, den
eine freundliche Fee mir geschenkt haben kennte” (20). She
describes a morning in Belgrade: “Auf alles was sich aus dem

138

nebligen Silberschaum emporhob, warf die Sonne ihre rosigen
Frfihstrahlen, . . ., und wie aus rosenfarbenem Marmor auf einer
Basis von Perlmutter gebaut, lagen die anmutigen Gebaude da,
ganz wie man es in Feenmarchen liest” (95). Cairo seems to be a
city from the Arabian Nights to her: “Uberhaupt -- Kairo und nur
Kairo ist in meinen Augen die echt orientalische Stadt, mit
ihren Formen und Anlagen and die Bilder aus Tausend und einer
Nacht erinnernd . . ." (243). The city of Luxor has a
“mythologischen Charakter" as it seems to be engulfed in
“traumerischen Duft” and “idealischen Farbungen” (313).

By describing the Orient as magical and mystical, Hahn-
Hahn is referring to the stereotypical images of the Orient that
are already familiar to readers in nineteenth century Germany.
However, Hahn-Hahn deconstructs these stereotypes with
descriptions of poverty and filth in the cities that immediately
follow the idyllic descriptions. Luxor appears mythical and
dreamlike from far. However, as Hahn-Hahn comes near the city,
it appears disgusting: “In der Nahe verschwindet Luxors Zauber
durch die ekelhafteste aller ekelhaften Wirklichkeiten” (313).
Belgrade loses its charm with the rising sun: “Und endlich [kam]
die ganze machtige Masse der Stadt [zum Vorschein]-- die man
eigentlich nur in der Ferne sehen mfiBte, wenn man nichts als
bezaubert von ihr sein wollte. Betritt man sie -- Illusion ade!
Das ist keine Feenstadt, sondern eine Schmutzstadt . . .” (96).

She is even more dramatic while describing Constantinople.
She compares the beauty of the city to a scene in the theater:
“Stell Dir eine Theaterdekoration vor, von Kfinstlerhand mit dem

139

gréBten Geschmack gemalt: Du bist entzfickt, hingerisssen von der
unvergleichlichen Szenerie, immer von neuem schauest Du sie an,
kannst nicht satt werden zu bewundern.” However, just like a
theater scene this beauty is only illusory. The reality is
hidden behind the feigned beauty: “Und jetzt ffihrt man Dich
hinter die Szene. Hilf Himmel! Latten, Sparrwerk, schmutziges
Papier, Stricke, Olflecke, grobe Leinwand: - so, aber genau ist
Konstantinopel” (28). Hahn-Hahn describes the chaos in the
city, the stray dogs and horses, as well as the rush on the

narrow streets:

Mehr noch als die ffirchterliche Unsauberkeit fallt mir die
ffirchterliche Unordnung auf. Hier weiden Schafe, da
warten Esel, dort schnattern Ganse und krahen Hahne; auf
diesem Fleck trocknet man wasche, auf jenem arbeitet ein
Tischler; wahrend von der einen Seite ein Zug Kamele
daherschreitet, naht von der anderen ein Leichenzug; da
spielen Kinder, da beiBen sich Hunde, da ist das
gleichgfiltigste Treiben der Welt. (29)

The contrast between the fairy tale imagery and the
descriptions of filth and poverty make the imagery of chaos and
anarchy even more effective. Hahn-Hahn raises the expectations
of readers with the fairy tale imagery. However, the
descriptions of poverty and filth frustrate those expectations.
With this description Hahn-Hahn conjures up images of total

chaos and anarchy in the Orient. These images call for

restoration of order that can be brought by Germans as Hahn-Hahn

suggests later on.33

 

33 See pages 142-43 in this chapter.
140

2. Description of non-Europeans

Hahn-Hahn describes non-Europeans with an awareness of her
own identity as a European. While she might seem to be critical
of EurOpe at times, this does not in any way diminish her
allegiance to her European identity or her sense of superiority
over non-Europeans. It is telling that she starts her
description of the non-European world from a tower -- a position
above this world. She offers her mother a panoramic view of
Constantinople: “Nacht schwebt fiber der Tiefe; aber sie wird
erheitert durch die zahllose Menge von Lichtern, die aus all den
winzig kleinen Hausern auftauchen, welche meinem europaischen
Auge zwerghaft wie Kartenhauser vorkommen” (20). Hahn-Hahn has
what David Spurr calls a “commanding view” over the city. Spurr
points out that a commanding view offers aesthetic pleasure on
one hand, information and authority on the other. According to
him this View conveys a sense of mastery over the unknown and
what is often perceived by the Western writer as strange and
bizarre (15). As we see in Hahn-Hahn’s description, the
commanding view diminishes the non-European city around Hahn-
Hahn and offers her visual command over the surroundings.
Hahn-Hahn’s sense of superiority is based on the Eurocentric

views that were expressed in the texts by authors, such as

Herder, Schlemiel and Hegel.34

 

34 See the section "Orientalism and its Criticism", especially
page 17 in the first chapter for more on the Eurocentric German
views in nineteenth century.

141

 

The non-Europeans are seen as people at a primitive level
of cultural and historical development. Just as Hahn-Hahn sees
the Orient as the origin of Western civilization, she sees the
native non- European people at an earlier stage of development
than the European people. She describes Turks as lifeless,
stagnant and lacking intellect:

Mir, ich gestehe es, ist diese Regungslosigkeit ganz

unsaglich zuwider, sobald sie nicht aus einer Herrschaft

der Intelligenz fiber den KOrper entspringt. In Momenten
tiefster geistiger Arbeit ist der Leib zuweilen wie
paralysiert; das begreift sich. Aber Leute, denen die

Welt der Ideen hermetisch verschlossen ist, erscheinen mir

stupid und mitnichten wfirdevoll.(22)

To describe the laziness of the Turks she writes: “Ein
Tfirk und jagen! Ein Tfirk und Vergnfigen an starker, schneller
Bewegung finden! Nein! . . . . Des Tfirken Genufl, Vergnfigen und
Zerstreuung ist Ruhe" (53).

According to David Spurr the colonizers’ insistence on
differentiating themselves from the colonized establishes a
notion of the savage as Other, the antithesis of civilized value
(Spurr 7). Hahn-Hahn insists on her radical difference from the
native people as a way of legitimizing her superior position.
She describes the non-Europeans as “barbarians," implying a
primitive level of cultural and historical development. After
seeing a gypsy in Turkey, she remarks: “Als ich neulich einem

wunderschonen jungen Zigeuner in phantasischer Tracht mit einer

Zither unter dem Arm begegnete, stand ich still, sah ihm nach

142

 

und dachte: der gebildete Mann braucht Intelligenz, der Barbar
Schénheit.” (57).

Hahn-Hahn maintains her distance toward the native people
throughout her journey. As she comes in a village called
Zebadani, the villagers offer her a place to stay. However, she
declines it: “Allein weder ihre [der Dorfbewohner] eigene noch
ihrer Hauser Nahe ist wfinschenswert - wegen Ungeziefers - und
wir ritten zum anderen Ende des Dorfes, wo wir auf den Trfimmern
einer kleinen Moschee . . . halt machten” (135).

While describing people in a village on the river Nile,
Hahn-Hahn dehumanizes them: “So ist hier das Volk -- in der Art
wie sein Vieh, Kamel und Esel, ohne Zaum und Zfigel, gar nicht zu
lenken, nur zu treiben.” (274) By comparing the villagers with
animals, Hahn-Hahn implies that they had little historical
development from animals. She shows similar attitude toward
Armenian people. She describes an Armenian woman as a “schfines,
wildes Tier" (45). Speaking of an Arab camel drover Hahn-Hahn
remarks: “Ich war im h6chsten Erstaunen -- nicht daB er das
Kamel kfiBte, das paBte diesen Halbwilden -- aber daB er
fiberhaupt etwas vom KuB wuBte" (220). Hahn-Hahn’s remarks show
that she considers the non-Europeans, in this case the Arabs, as
primitive people.

The Armenian people are also described as ‘childish’: “Da
schaukelte noch die junge Armenierin, da treibt noch der Gaukler
seine Possen, da wurde noch Zuckerwerk feilgeboten, und alles
ging nach hergebrachter Weise im kindischen Treiben, ohne
Intelligenz, ohne Idee, so fort” (48). Not only the non-

143

 

European people but the whole non-European world as such is made
infantile. A good example is Hahn-Hahn’s description of a
village near Cairo:

Diese stillbelebte kindliche Welt, die fippig und reich aus
den Wassern auftauchte und nur von harmlosen Tieren
bevfilkert war, kam mir vor wie am Schopfungsmorgen; so
merkwfirdig friedlich und unentwickelt! Ich stand zuweilen
still und sah mich um; eine solche Kindlichkeit unserer
alten Erde kann man sich unmoglich vorstellen! Wie fiber
Nacht geboren und in der Wiege liegend. Ich sage gar
nicht, daB es wunderschbn war. Ein Kind in der Wiege ist
keineswegs schon, nur merkwfirdig, weil es die erste Stufe
des Menschenlebens ist, und hier war die erste des
Naturlebens.(232)

 

The native people are also described as powerless and
lifeless. After seeing the Sultan in Constantinople, Hahn-Hahn

describes his face as “bleich” as well as “regungslos” and his

eyes as “starr” and “glasig” (30).35 She describes the whole
Turkish empire as decaying and lifeless: “Ich stelle mir vor,
daB das Reich an der Abzehrung langsam, langsam dahin stirbt,
wie das immer den entnervten Orgasationen ergeht . . . Ich kann
mir nicht vorstellen, daB die Tfirkei eine andere Zukunft haben

konnte als in sich selbst zu vermodern" (46-47). The people and

the Empire are also depicted as corrupt.36 Furthermore Hahn-Hahn
criticizes the Turkish people for being passive and depending on
fate (114).

By depicting the non-European world as childlike as well
as childish, non-intellectual and stagnant, Hahn-Hahn sets the
stage for the Europeans to step in to control them and teach

them. She regrets that the non-European people —- in this case

 

35 See pages 54, 292

36 See pages 47, 68, 154, 185,255
144

the Arabs -- are not learning anything from the Europeans: “Da
er (der Araber) glaubt, nichts von ihnen [den Europaern] lernen
zu kOnnen, so lernt er auch nichts, wahrend seine Talente ihm
doch sehr dazu befahigen. Daher ist es unerhbrt schwer mit ihm
zu leben . . ." (159). Hahn-Hahn thinks that “industrious" and
“efficient" Germans could improve these lazy uncivilized people:
“Ach, liebes Herz, ware das tfirkische Regiment ein
zuverlassiges, ich meine ein solches, das Ordnung halten k6nnte
in seinem eigenen Reich: dann ein paar tausend tfichtige,
fleiBige, arbeitgewohnte, brave deutsche Hande hierher zu
schaffen . . . das k6nnte etwas Gutes werden"(129). Hahn-Hahn
is arguing that the Germans could improve the conditions in
Turkey.

Most of the time the non-Europeans are pictured as
uncivilized barbarians, but the Bedouins are an exception to
that. Perhaps attracted by the relatively free life style of
the Bedouins -- their moving from place to place, their living
in tents -- Hahn-Hahn idealizes them. Speaking of them she

notes: “Es ist mir auBerordentlich angenehm von Menschen umgeben

zu sein bei denen das Geschfipf Gottes mir gefallt . . . . Ich
nenne so den rohen Menschen - ich meine roh, wie man sagt rohe
Seide, nicht prapariert . . ." (196). Hahn-Hahn sees the

roughness of Bedouins in a positive way. She praises their
simplicity: “Es war ein Stfickchen paradiesischen Lebens:
Menschen in den einfachsten befriedigendsten Verhaltnissen,
deren Wfinsche und Bedfirfnisse vollkommen der Sphére entsprechen,
welche sie ausffillen sollen . . ." (199). Hahn-Hahn-Hahn

145

 

acknowledges that the Bedouins are “wild,” but she praises their

way of life:

Ach, die Beduinen! Friede fiber ihre Zelte, und Gott
erhalte sie immer so wild und frei! Denn wild sind sie
natfirlich, und gebildet gar nicht . . . . Von der Geburt
bis zum Grabe ist das Leben nie eine Last, nie ein Kampf,
und ist es auch mit kleinen Mfihen und Sorgen verwebt, so
kennt es doch durchaus keine Qualen: keine Unruh ffir die
Zukunft, kein Mtiergnfigen mit der Gegenwart, keine Reue
fiber die Vergangenheit, kein Grfibeln ins Nichts, kein
Fliegen durchs All. Eine gelassene Zufriedenheit ist der
volle, kfihle Bach, der von einer Generation zur andern ein
gesundes, frisches, tfichtiges Leben ausstrémt. Daher ist
auch jede Generation frisch, als sei sie eben aus der Hand
des Schopfers hervorgegangen, nicht welk, nicht grau,
nicht matt wie bei uns . . . . (200-01)

For Hahn-Hahn the life of the Bedouins represents
everything that nineteenth century Europe is not. Hahn-Hahn
idealizes the Bedouins in relation to European society. Hahn-
Hahn notes: “Der Bedouin ist der individuellste Mensch .

Davon hat der Europaer gar keinen Begriff”. The simple and
carefree life of Bedouins, their ease and harmony with the
natural surroundings offer an antithesis to German society.
Hahn-Hahn presents the Bedouins as “noble savages.” Speaking of
the European image of the “noble savage” Gerd Stein notes:

Das Bild vom edlen Wilden [hat] eine fatale Funktion, denn

unaufkfindbar ist es der ungeheuren Arroganz der WeiBen

gegenfiber den Wilden verbunden. Wenn die Wilden ‘auch’

Menschen sind, ...dann gibt es weiterhin gleichwohl zwei

Sorten von Menschen, namlich Menschen und Auch-Menschen,

und es bleibt prekar, der letzteren Spielart anzugehéren.

Trotz aller Gutwilligkeit verliert die eigens zugestandene

Menschlichkeit nicht ihren g6nnerhaften und damit

herrschaftlichen Charakter. (10)

Although Hahn-Hahn idealizes the Bedouins she still refers to

them as wild. In the light of Hahn-Hahn’s negative description

146

 

of the non-Europeans as primitive people, the singling out of
Bedouins as the “noble savages" seems even more patronizing.
Hahn-Hahn simply projects her unfulfilled wishes on the
Bedouins. The idealization of the Bedouins appears to be what
David Spurr calls “imaginary wish fulfillment" (127) by Hahn-
Hahn. Thus this idealization falls short of being a gesture
that turns its back on European society in order to accept some

alternative mode of being.

3. Description of Women

As seen from the discussion of Hahn-Hahn’s life in the
second chapter, Hahn-Hahn recognized that women were denied
equality in German society because of their gender. Hahn-Hahn
discussed the situation of women in German society in her novels

Grafin Faustin and Der Rechte and demanded more freedom and

 

 

equality for women. However, while describing non-European
women Hahn-Hahn prioritizes the issue of race over the issue of
gender: that is, she views these women more as ‘non-Europeans’
than as ‘women’ and she views herself more as a ‘European’ than
as a ‘woman’.

In her description of Oriental women Hahn-Hahn contests
the stereotypical image of sensual and exotic Oriental women.
She notes that the popular stereotypical picture of Oriental
women is unreal and that sensual Oriental women exist only in
the male fantasy: “Ich will durchaus die orientalischen

Schenheiten finden, welche uns die Keepsakes in so reizenden

147

 

Stahlstichen vorffihren, und die Dichter so anmutig mit
Gazellenaugen und Gazellenbewegungen beschreiben. Bis jetzt
habe ich auBer in Smyrna keine gefunden” (131). She describes
that in reality Turkish women are unattractive:
In der Wirklichkeit, in der schénen freien Natur, sind sie
etwas leblos und plump, denn ich finde dieses ewige Kauern
auf der Erde h6chst ungraziés, ich mochte sagen monstrés,
weil man die menschliche Gestalt immer nur zur Halfte
sieht. Aber wohl den Frauen, wenn man sie nur sitzend
erblickt! Welch ein Gang, welch krummen Beine, welche
einwarts gekehrten FfiBe! Nicht einen Tanzmeister- nur

einen Exersiermeister mocht’ ich ihnen g6nnen, damit sie
nicht so graBlich einher watschelten. (32)

Hahn-Hahn criticizes the unrealistic picture the of
Oriental women: “Die orientalischen Dichter entlehnen von der
Gazelle tausend Grazien um die Geliebte damit zu schmficken: die
groBen Augen, der leichte Gang, der zarte FuB, die anmutigen
Bewegungen. Bei der Gazelle habe ich das alles auch ganz
richtig gefunden, jedoch noch nicht bei den arabischen
Frauenzimmern” (165). The debunking of stereotypes by Hahn-Hahn
underscores her claims of objectivity. The reader (in
nineteenth-century Germany) is led to believe that Hahn-Hahn is
uninfluenced and unbiased by the popular notions in German
society about Oriental women.

Hahn-Hahn finds the Turkish women lifeless: “Wie
Fleischklumpen sehen sie aus, die sich nicht aufrecht halten
kennen, und in sich selbst zusammen sinken” (56). To emphasize
their lifelessness she describes them as “welk, schwammig" and
“aufgedunsen” (56). In an Arabian wedding which Hahn-Hahn

attends, the bride seems to be rigid and stiff to her: “In

148

 

diesem schwarzen Anzug saB sie nun da, steif und starr, mit
herabhangenden Armen, mehr einer Mumie als einem lebenden Wesen
ahnlich” (121). Watching Turkish women in Damascus, they remind
her of puppets: “Ich dachte zuerst immer an Marionetten, die
sich durch Kunst bewegen” (143). By emphasizing the
lifelessness and rigidity of non-European women and by comparing
them to puppets, Hahn-Hahn seems to be suggesting that these
women had no control over their life.

Hahn-Hahn’s idea of beauty is influenced by European
standards. Measuring the non-European women with this standard,
she often compares them to animals. While describing women in
Nubia she compares them to monkeys: “Die breiten blaugefarbten
Lippen, der klaffende Mund, die grell weiBen groBen Zéhne, die
rollenden Augen -- der Affe ist fertig” (278). She describes
the Turkish women as “braune Baren” (56), an Armenian woman as
“wildes Tier” (45) and the women in the slave market in
Constantinople as “Viehherde” (49) and one as a “Pferd” (51).
Besides revealing Hahn-Hahn’s bias about the lack of beauty in
non-European women, these comparisons also show that Hahn-Hahn
thinks that the non-European women are in the primitive stage of
development.

Hahn-Hahn not only judges the physical appearance of the

Turkish women but she also accuses them of immorality:37

 

37 Hahn-Hahn accuses not only the Turkish women but the Turkish

people in general of immorality. Speaking of the story-tellers

in the cafes in Constantinople, she writes: “ Je lasziver diese

Erzahlungen, umsomehr gefallen sie, und hauptsachlich mfissen sie

Weiber zum Gegenstand haben; ... Und auBerdem horte ich, daB,

wenn sich die Tfirken je auf eine Unterhaltung einlassen, so sei
149

_1-—LJ-_

 

Die Frauen sollen besonders trotz Schleier, Gitterfenster
und Eunuchen, Liebeshandel genug anzuspinnen wissen --
hauptsachlich beim Besuch des Besestan. Daher existiert
auch ein Gesetz, daB sie nicht in die Buden hineingehen
dfirfen, sondern vor derselben (sic) ihre Einkaufe machen
mfissen. Ferner ein anderes, das den Kaufleuten befiehlt
meglichst unschone Kaufdiener in ihrem Laden zu haben.

Das alles zeugt nicht von wundervoller Sittenreinheit -

sollte ich meinen. (55)

Hahn-Hahn’s descriptions of the non-European women are
mostly addressed to the European male audience as a corrective
to their stereotypical image of the Oriental woman. Especially
her letters with the description of the women in a slave market
and in the harems are addressed to her brother. By going to the
slave market where Europeans were usually not allowed and the
harem where men were not allowed, Hahn-Hahn enters the interior
spaces of the non-Europeans and observes them at a close range.
Speaking about the description in Western literature of the
interior spaces of non-Europeans, such as a night club in Saigon
or sacred caves in India, David Spurr notes: “In these interiors
the confrontation of cultures takes place face to face, or
rather eye to eye, and it is here, at close range, that the gaze
of the writer can have its most powerful effect” (20). Hahn-
Hahn penetrates into the interior spaces of the Middle Eastern
people such as the harem and the slave market. Although
Europeans were not allowed to visit the slave markets, Hahn-Hahn

manages to get inside one of them by offering money. She

invites her brother to join her:

 

sie bestandig fiber Frauen, und in jener Manier. In den
Vergnfigungen eines Volks liegt so viel Charakteristisches!"
(54).

150

 

Mein lieber Dinand, heute gedenke ich Dir ein ganz
besondres Vergnfigen zu machen, und Dich einzuladen mit mir
den Sklavenmarkt zu besuchen. Wohlverstanden den
Sklavinnenmarkt, den Blumenflor von Georgien und
Zirkassien, und voll schwarzer athiopischer Schfinheiten -
alles zu kaufen wie die schénste Viehherde! . . . Jetzt

treten wir ein in das Paradies voll Houris,38 gespannt,

neugierig, erwartungsvoll (48-50)

Hahn-Hahn plays the role of an expectant and excited
voyeur. She expects to see beautiful women in the slave market
but is appalled at the sight of the black women who appear
terrible to her European eyes: “0 Entsetzen! Schauderhafter,
abstoBender Anblick! Nimm Deine Einbildungskraft zusammen,
stelle Dir Monstra vor, und Du bleibst noch weit hinter den
Negerinnen zurfick von denen sich Dein beleidigtes Auge mit
Widerwillen abwendet” (50). Hahn-Hahn describes how the women
are measured and probed by those people who intend to buy them.
Instead of feeling compassion or sympathy for the slaves, Hahn-
Hahn notes: “Ich muB ehrlich gestehen, daB mich bei der ganzen
Prozedur nichts so anwiderte als ihre HaBlichkeit, und daB mir
der majestatische K6nigsgeier zu Schénbrunn mehr Mitleid mit
seiner Gefangeschaft einflfiflte als die Sklaverei dieser
Geschfipfe" (51). Hahn-Hahn denies them the status of
individuals and views them as objects:

Ich fragte mich heimlich: “Ist es mOglich, daB eine

Sappho, eine Aspasia, eine Maria Stuart, diese und

ahnliche Weltwunder von Geist, Liebreiz und Schénheit,

desselben Geschlechts sein konnten?" - und mit groBer

Zuversicht antwortete ich mir selbst: “Nein! Denn ein Weib

ohne Intelligenz ist kein Weib mehr, sondern nur noch --

Himmel, nun habe ich kein anderes Wort, als: ein Weibchen,

und das klingt wie ein Schmeichelname der zartlichkeit!
Aber ich meine: une femelle. Die Rassen! Von deren

 

38 Houris is a beautiful virgin in paradise in Muslim religion.
151

 

Verschiedenheit wird man durchdrungen, wenn man im Geist
eine solche Schwarze neben eine Aspasia stellt; und die
Kluft welch diese beiden Wesen trennt kann kein
Philanthrop ableugnen. Wir sind von Staub und wir gehen
zum Staub; aber ffir die paar Jahre, die ich lebe, danke
ich denn doch meinem Schopfer, daB es ihm gefallen hat mir

eine weiBe Staubeshfille zu geben. (51)

Hahn-Hahn seems to be aware of the perishable nature of
human life. She refers to her skin as ‘Staubhfille’ indicating
that she considers her existence to be ephemeral. Nonetheless,
in her perishable existence she is thankful to be a white
person. Hahn-Hahn’s comments about the black women reveal that
her notion of race placed the Europeans at the top and the
Africans at the bottom of the racial hierarchy.

In her description of the harem, Hahn-Hahn tries to
contrast the stereotypical European image of Oriental beauty.
However, she does this at the expense of the non-European women
by describing them as objects rather than individuals. In
nineteenth-century German society and in Europe in general, the
harem was considered to be an exotic place associated with
sensuality. Hahn-Hahn desexualises it by describing it as an
institution that brings out the worst in a woman. In a letter
to her mother written before she had visited any harem, Hahn-
Hahn describes her expectations of the harem. She describes it
as a place that makes women jealous, bitter and hateful:

Immer von Nebenbuhlerinnen umgeben, immer bewacht und

umringt von diesen Scheusalen, den Eunuchen, immer

unbeschaftigt, mufi Eifersucht, Neid, Bitterkeit, Hafi, Lust
an Ranken, grenzenlose Gefallsucht als helle Flamme

aufschlagen. Man will die gehaBten Nebenbuhlerinnen
besiegen -- das liegt in der Natur jedes Weibes! (39)

152

Hahn-Hahn speculates that the popular belief in the
happiness of women in the harem is wrong because their instinct
must be struggling against the institution of harem. Hahn-Hahn
makes a distinction between “instinct” and “consciousness” and
concludes that the women in the harem are capable of having
instinct but not a consciousness. As shown earlier, Hahn-Hahn
is suggesting that these women have little historical
development from animals:

Ja, sie treten in das Joch des Harems, und dessen Form ist

ihnen zur Gewohnheit geworden; aber gegen den Inhalt

straubt sich ihr Instinkt -- ich will nicht sagen ihr

BewuBtsein, denn das mag bei wenigen erwachen -- Nur der

Instinkt, der unabweisliche, allmachtige. Da keine

Geistes -- und Seelenbildung ihn bandigt und regelt, wie

sollte es da nicht zu den heftigsten Ausbrfichen, zu den

tiefsten Gemeinheiten, zu den grfiBten Grausamkeiten
kommen. Der Harem ist die wahre Anstalt um den Charakter
der Frau zu verderben, und es ist wohl schade, daB er ffir
europaische Augen mit undurchdringlichen Schleiern umgeben
ist.(39)

In these comments Hahn-Hahn seems to criticize the
institution of the harem which, according to her, leads to the
degradation of women in the harem. Later on Hahn-Hahn’s
curiosity about the harem is satisfied after she visits the
harem of Rifat Pascha. She describes the harem to her brother:
“Mein lieber Bruder, so reizend Du Dir einen Harem vorstellen
m6gest,- ich muB Dir aufrichtig sagen: hat man zwei besucht, so
sehnt man sich nicht nach dem dritten . . . ." (78) She
contrasts the myth of the beautiful Oriental women in the harem
by saying: “Wie sie aussehen, wirst Du ganz neugierig wissen

wollen; und da tut es mir wahrhaft leid sagen zu mfissen, daB wir

auch nicht eine Spur von Schénheit gefunden haben” (80-81).

153

 

Hahn-Hahn participates in the activities of women in the
harem by eating with them and having conversations with them
through an interpreter. She finds their eating excessive,
irregular and undisciplined. She thinks that the topics of
their conversations show their indulgence of the flesh and she
connects this with their physical and mental degeneration. She
concludes from her visits: “Mehr noch als der Leib, wohnt hier
der Geist im Kafig" (86). T

Hahn-Hahn’s second visit to the harem of an Arabian man in

Damascus confirms her opinion of the harem: “Der Harem ist eine

 

Wiese, die den Bedfirfnissen des animalischen Lebens genfigt” E
(153). She criticizes the women in this harem for their
curiosity: “Sie (die Weiber) larmten, lachten, schrien um mich
herum, betrachteten mich, faBten meine Hande an - die Wilden der
Sfidsee k6nnen nicht wilder in ihrer Neugier sein. So eine Masse
roher Weiber zu sehen ist mir schrecklich. Lieber sehe ich eine
Herde Kfihe oder Schafe” (152). The curiosity of the women in
the Harem is unacceptable to Hahn-Hahn because there is no
intersubjective relation between Hahn-Hahn as the observer and
the women in the harem as those being observed. There is no
sense of common humanity shared between the ‘I’ and the cultural
‘Other’. As a result any time a ‘role reversal’ happens, it is
unacceptable to Hahn-Hahn. Hahn-Hahn always remains the
observer, not the one to be observed.

In discussing the travel writings on the Middle East by
British women in the nineteenth century, Billie Melman posits
that women travelers “normalized and humanized” the harem (62).

154

That is, they participated in the ordinary activities and the
rituals in the harem. She thinks that the relation between the
women writers and the harem is intersubjective because women
travelers are participant observers. She concludes: “This kind
of participant observation, as a part of an intersubjective
process, distinguishes harem literature from the more general
discussion in Europe, on the exotic” (62). It is true that
Hahn-Hahn participates in the activities of the women in the
harem. However that participation does not make Hahn-Hahn’s
description of the harem ‘harem literature’ in Melman’s sense
because Hahn-Hahn lacks an empathy toward the women in the harem
(and non—European people in general).

After seeing the harem and meeting the women living in the
harem Hahn-Hahn writes: “Ach, welche eine Wonne, zu den alten
sogenannten nordischen Barbaren, zu den volkern germanischen
Stammes zu gehéren, bei denen bis in die graueste Vorzeit hinein
das Weib den Platz einen Menschen einnahm” (153). Hahn-Hahn is
glad to be European because she thinks that even primitive
Europeans treated women as humans in contrast to non-European
cultures, where women are confined to harems.

In her novels Hahn-Hahn shows that she was aware of the
discriminatory treatment that women received in nineteenth-
century German society. She criticizes German society when she
is within this society. As soon as she is with non-Germans she
aligns with her German identity by differentiating herself from
the rest of the people and assigning hierarchical or ethical

value to the distinction.

155

 

D. Conclusion

Pfeiffer and Hahn-Hahn offer their readers distinct
presentations of their narrative selves. Their different
backgrounds shape their texts differently. In spite of these
differences, critics such as Annegret Pelz and Tamara Felden
cannot resist comparing these two authors and passing evaluative

judgment on their writing. Comparing Pfeiffer’s Reise einer

 

Wienerin ins Heilige Land with Hahn-Hahn’s Orientalische Briefe

 

Pelz writes: “Im Vergleich zu Hahn-Hahns bewuBter Symbolik sind
Pfeiffers Texte prosaisch. Ihre Texte sind Fragmente, die sich
unendlich verstreuen und ihren Bewegungen bis in den Tod auf der
Reise folgen” (Europarinnen und Orientalismus 214). Tamara
Felden concludes: “Generell zeichnet sich der Text Hahn-Hahns
durch seine Direktheit und die offensichtliche Involviertheit
der Autorin aus, wahrend Pfeiffer gerade eine solche Beteiligung
intellektueller wie emotionaler Art vermissen laBt” (102).

Not only was Reise einer Wienerin ins Heilige Land

 

Pfeiffer’s first travelogue but she was also forced to be modest
about her writing because of societal pressure. It is true that
Pfeiffer and Hahn-Hahn traveled to the same part of the world
(Middle East) at around the same time. However they could not
be more different in background as writers. Helga Watt is right
to point out that we should study Hahn-Hahn and Pfeiffer
“without the need for proving one superior and the other

lacking" (344).

156

Hahn-Hahn’s awareness of the marginal position of women in
nineteenth-century German society gives her a unique perspective
of an outsider within Western culture as she observes the people
in the Middle East -- the subordinate Other of Western culture.
This gives her an opportunity to recognize the similarities
between the marginal position of women within German society and
the colonized position of Orient Vis-a-vis the West, and form a
common bond of empathy between herself and the Oriental people.
Anngert Pelz thinks that travelogues by women describing their
journey to the Orient is “die Begegnung zweier
Weiblichkeitsbilder, er [der Reisebericht] beschreibt eine
exzentrische Bewegung von einer Peripherie in die andere, die
die Chance mit sich bringt, Selbst- und Fremdbilder aufzubrechen
und neu zu schreiben.” (Frauen Literatur Politik 206). However
Hahn-Hahn fails to create new images of Self and the Orient that
are non-hierarchical. She recognized that women were denied
equality because of their gender in nineteenth-century German
society. However the recognition of her gender marginality does
not translate into the recognition of cultural marginality of
the Orient, or women within that culture, Vis-a-vis the West.

Speaking of women travelers in the nineteenth-century
Shirley Foster claims:

The woman writer often represents foreigners

sympathetically, as individuals with whom she tries to

identify rather than as symbols of an alien ‘otherness’.

In her concern with relationships, rather than with larger

political or social issues, she blurs the demarcation

between ‘them’ and ‘us’ and may be less assertive than her

male equivalent in her establishment of a subject
position. (24)

157

_ A“,

 

However, Hahn-Hahn’s writing shows a clear demarcation
between “us" and “them.” Hahn-Hahn’s aristocratic origin, her
success as an author and her financial independence give her
more freedom in writing as compared with Pfeiffer. Hahn-Hahn
uses this freedom to establish the narrator as an independent
person not obliged to conform to the gender expectations from
society. Hahn-Hahn frees herself from the gender category but

she is unable to step outside her racial identity.

158

Chapter V
Conclusion

Speaking of the writing process for female anthropologists
Ruth Behar notes: “When a woman sits down to write, all eyes are
on her. The woman who is turning others into the object of her
gaze is herself already an object of the gaze. Woman, the
original Other, is always being looked at and looked over. A
woman sees herself being seen” (2). This self-conscious process
of writing by women anthropologists also applies to the travel
writers Ida Hahn-Hahn and Ida Pfeiffer. As women travel writers
in nineteenth-century Germany, they were indeed turning the
people of the countries they visited into objects of their gaze.
At the same time they were themselves objects of the gaze by
nineteenth-century German society. Hahn-Hahn and Pfeiffer were
aware of their status as “objects of the gaze” in German
society. They were aware of their marginality in society due to
their gender. The question is: how did their awareness of
gender marginality influence their self-representation as well
as the representation of the Other in their writing?

This dissertation answers that question by studying the
travel writings on the Orient by Ida Hahn-Hahn and Ida Pfeiffer.
It shows that Hahn-Hahn and Pfeiffer recognized their gender
marginality in patriarchal German society. Their awareness of
their marginal position offered them a chance to recognize the
cultural marginality of the non-European Other vis-a-vis Western

society. However, Hahn-Hahn and Pfeiffer embraced their roles

159

as Europeans, thereby escaping their gender roles. Belief in
their superiority as Europeans led to a belief in the
inferiority of non-European people. Contrary to the assertions
made by many feminist critics, the depiction of the Other in the
travel writings of Hahn-Hahn and Pfeiffer is colonial in nature.

The focus of this dissertation was on the depiction of the
Orient in the travel writings of Hahn-Hahn and Pfeiffer. The
Orient has been one of the West’s images of the Other. Edward
Said’s basic thesis asserts that Western writers, especially
since the eighteenth century, have constructed the Orient as the
Other. Said calls the Western style of dominating,
restructuring or having authority over the Orient “Orientalism.”
Orientalism was practiced in Germany as well as in other
European countries such as France and Great Britain in the
nineteenth century. It served as a tool for the colonial
endeavors in France and England and justified the treatment of
the colonized people by the Europeans, whereas for Germany it
was a substitute for real colonies.

Germany did not have any direct nationalist interest in
the Orient at this time. However, it shared an intellectual
authority over the Orient with England and France. The idea of
the Orient in Germany had little to do with real observation or
historical data. On the one hand, the Orient was seen as a
place for idealistic escape from rationalist European society.
On the other hand, it was shown to be at a more primitive stage
of development by philosophers like Hegel. Germany’s
intellectual authority over the Orient is evident in the idea of

160

“Oriental despotism.” This idea was strengthened by Hegel’s
Lectures on the Philosophy of History, in which he presented the
notion of the absence of subjectivity in the Oriental world.
Hegel’s notion of lack of subjectivity creates an image of the
Oriental people as passive and lacking in desire.

There are striking similarities in the way both the Orient
and women are defined by setting the ‘civilized’ European man as
the norm. The Orient, as well as the woman, is objectified
whereas the European man retains the subject position. Thus,
the position of the Orient, as well the woman, vis-a-vis the
European man is the same. Nonetheless, this does not
necessarily mean that the non-European Other and the European
woman would form a coalition to oppose colonialism. The power
relationship between white European women and the non-European
men and women is unequal. The inequality in this relationship
shows that experiences of the Other cannot be defined just in
terms of women’s experiences.

I chose the texts Eine Frauenfahrt um die Welt and Reise

 

 

einer Wienerin ins Heilige Land by Ida Pfeiffer, and

Orientalische Briefe by Ida Hahn-Hahn to study their self-

 

presentation as well as the presentation of the Orient. While
maintaining an autobiographical approach to the texts, I point
out the complexity of autobiographical writing by distinguishing
the narrator in the text from the writer as a person outside the
text. For example, by traveling alone to far away places,

Pfeiffer broke away from the gender role expectations of

161

society. However, the narrator in her texts has to adhere to
those gender role expectations because of social pressure.

The self-representation of Hahn-Hahn and Pfeiffer reflects
the position of women in nineteenth-century German society and
the ideas about women’s nature that Hahn-Hahn and Pfeiffer might
have experienced and internalized. Educators, philosophers, and
writers developed and popularized a bourgeois gender ideology in
the nineteenth century that defined women by their role as
mothers, wives and housekeepers. It tied them to the private
sphere of home. Socially, culturally, and economically, women
were denied equal access and thus marginalized.

Pfeiffer broke away from gender norms by leaving the
female domain of family and traveling alone to places far away.
However, she could not completely disregard the pressure to
recognize those norms. Coming from a bourgeois family Pfeiffer
felt more pressure than Hahn-Hahn to conform to bourgeois gender
ideology. In addition, she was dependent on her income from the
sale of her books which might have forced her to appear
acceptable to her readers.

On the one hand, Pfeiffer presents herself as a person
with masculine strengths by emphasizing her belief in her
willpower, her readiness to face adventure and her independence.
She claims to be objective in her description. She portrays the
narrator as an authoritative figure, who always has control over
the situation. Pfeiffer is aware of the fact that she has
crossed over the gender line. She often refers to her gender to
emphasize that her journey was unique because it was a journey

162

 

made alone by a woman. This might be a strategy used by
Pfeiffer to make her travelogue more marketable.

On the other hand, Pfeiffer feels the pressure to conform
to gender norms. She often reminds her readers that she still
believes in bourgeois gender ideology. Pfeiffer uses various
strategies to appear feminine. She disguises her motive to
travel under religious reasons because a religious journey was
the most accepted form of travel for women. She tries to appear
modest by denying political or scientific expertise. In order
to deny that she is an author, she asserts that she never
intended to publish her writing and emphasizes her lack of
writing skills As a result of these strategies, the narrator in
Pfeiffer’s writings appears feminine. Assuming the masculine
voice and conforming to the bourgeois ideal of femininity
simultaneously makes Pfeiffer’s self-representation
contradictory as well as gender-ambiguous.

The extent to which Pfeiffer internalized the bourgeois
gender ideals or the extent to which she was using the
strategies to appear feminine in order to avoid any public
criticism is difficult to determine. Pfeiffer rebelled at an
early age against her mother who tried to reinforce the
traditional woman’s role in Pfeiffer. She lived separately from
her husband and above all she traveled alone to places far away.
This biographical information about Pfeiffer leads me to believe
that her efforts to appear feminine were more designed to
compensate for her breaking away from the gender norms than the

internalization of those norms.

163

Ida Hahn-Hahn came from an aristocratic family. By the
time she set out on her journey to the Middle East, she was
divorced from her husband and living with her companion Baron
Adolf Bystram. As she was getting alimony from her husband, she
was financially independent. The popularity of her novels and
travelogues had established her as a successful author. Hahn-
Hahn’s awareness of her aristocratic origin, her financial !
independence, and her success as an author give her ammunition
against the pressure to conform to gender expectations of
society.

Hardly using any strategies to appear feminine, Hahn-Hahn

 

portrays herself as an independent and self-assertive person.
Unlike Pfeiffer, Hahn-Hahn does not limit her description to
topics that were considered feminine. Refusing to be modest
about her writing skills, she openly admits the joy of writing.
She does not try to justify her travel by stating religion as
the motive. Instead, she asserts that she is setting out on the
journey to educate herself and to find hope for a troubled
European society. Like Pfeiffer, Hahn-Hahn claims to be
objective and authentic in her description. The gender
ambiguity in Pfeiffer’s self-presentation is almost absent in
Hahn-Hahn.

Although the differences in their backgrounds,
intentions, and accomplishments make their self-representation
different from each other, their representation of the Other is
not distinct. Both Hahn-Hahn and Pfeiffer formulate images of
the Other that are Eurocentric. It shows that their gender

164

marginality within European society has its own margins, where
they place culturally marginal non-European Other. The gender
of Hahn-Hahn and Pfeiffer placed them in a position inferior to
men in the patriarchal society at home. When Hahn-Hahn and
Pfeiffer were away from home, they assigned the non-Europeans a
symbolic place inferior to them. The gender marginality of
Hahn-Hahn and Pfeiffer and the cultural marginality of the non-
European Other are two distinct constellations of power.
Speaking of women’s part in anti-Semitism and racism in
Germany, Birgit Rommelspacher asserts: “Auch Frauen haben ihre
Wfinsche nach Ausbeutung, Unterwerfung und Eroberung” (120). She
concludes: “Das Geschlechterverhaltnis und die gesellschaftlich-
politische Verortung von Frauen [sind] zwei verschiedene
Bereiche, die ihre eigene Dynamik und ihre eigene
GesetzmaBigkeit entfalten, auch wenn sie nur in ihrer Beziehung
zueinander zu verstehen sind” (120). The gender relations in a
society and the socio-political orientation of women are
independent of each other. The gender relations between men and
women in a society might be colonial. That alone does not
guarantee that those women will necessarily have a non-colonial
attitude toward others who have an inferior position in relation
to that society. More than gender, what contributes to the
colonial or non-colonial attitude is an awareness of a power
relationship between the Self and the Other and the willingness
or unwillingness to show solidarity with the marginalized group.

Hahn-Hahn and Pfeiffer were aware of the power that they had

165

 

over the non-European Other. Their unwillingness to show
solidarity with the non-Europeans makes their stance colonial.

While defining the non-European Other Hahn-Hahn and
Pfeiffer retain the subject position for themselves and
objectify the Other. Hahn-Hahn and Pfeiffer establish their
authority over the non-Europeans through demonstrations of moral
superiority. Their sense of superiority is based on the
Eurocentric views prevalent in the nineteenth century. The idea
of European supremacy presented a world View in which the trade
and the scientific expedition led by Europeans would ultimately
lead to a more civilized world, in which the European principles
would dominate. They describe the Arabs and the Turks as
backward and lazy. The non-Europeans are seen as people at a
more primitive stage of cultural and historical development than
the European people. Pfeiffer seems to be influenced by the
missionary movement which saw as its duty to convert the
“heathens” into Christians. She shares their belief in the
superiority of Christianity and hopes that they can “improve”
the native people. By depicting the non-Europeans as childlike,
non-intellectual and stagnant, Hahn-Hahn sets the stage for the
Europeans to step in to control them and teach them.

Hahn-Hahn and Pfeiffer describe the Orient in a way that
reconfirms its stereotypical image in German society. Pfeiffer
portrays the other places she visits in terms of abhorrent
smells, filthiness and poverty. Hahn-Hahn sees the Orient as a

stagnant place belonging to the past. Her depiction of the

166

Orient lacks any references to the future. In her description
she conjures up images of total chaos and anarchy in the Orient.

Their description of the Oriental women deconstructs the
stereotypes of sensual and exotic Oriental women created by male
writers. However, they replace them with new stereotypical
images that are equally negative. By denying human qualities to
these women, Hahn-Hahn and Pfeiffer objectify them. They
describe them as lifeless and having little control over their
life. Hahn-Hahn’s and Pfeiffer’s idea of beauty is influenced
by European standards. Hahn-Hahn often compares the Oriental
women to animals, suggesting that they are in a primitive stage
of development. This representation of Oriental women by Hahn-
Hahn and Pfeiffer is in contrast to their implicit self-
representation as educated and having freedom to make their own
decisions.

The description of harems by Hahn-Hahn and Pfeiffer is an
attempt to demolish the stereotypical erotic images of harems.
They desexualize the harem by emphasizing the lack of beautiful
women there. Hahn-Hahn describes it as an institution that
brings out the worst in a woman. She describes the women in the
harem as jealous, bitter and hateful. Hahn-Hahn and Pfeiffer
show little sympathy toward the Oriental women. The depiction
of the Oriental women by Hahn-Hahn and Pfeiffer shows that the
assumption of women as an already constituted and coherent group
is problematic. One has to take into consideration differences
not only between the genders but also within the gender itself.
Gender is only one of the many factors that form the identities

167

 

 

4m-_._
‘11..- wr-

 

of Hahn—Hahn and Pfeiffer as travel writers. More than their
female gender, their identity as European influences their
presentation of the Other.

Besides going to the Middle East Hahn-Hahn and Pfeiffer
traveled to many other places. Pfeiffer, for example, traveled

to Brazil, Tahiti and Madagascar. Hahn-Hahn traveled to places

 

in Europe such as Italy and France. It would be useful to ‘
investigate the preconceived notions in German society about I
these countries which Hahn-Hahn and Pfeiffer visited and how the

notions might be reflected in the writings of Hahn-Hahn and

Pfeiffer. This dissertation contributes to the discussion about E

relationship between feminism and colonialism and shows that
with these two writers colonialism was not an exclusively male

enterprise.

168

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