Abstract
Staying in the prefatory note
Irony, simplicity and solitude in the travel essays of Elizabeth Taylor
In the mind of many travellers - reflected in the books and accounts they have written - the Faroe Islands are a prefatory note to Iceland. It seems to be an impulse or idea not only supported geographically by the fact that the Faroe Islands consist of rocks in the sea whereas Iceland is a unified massive entity with volcanos and glaciers, surrounded by smaller islands. It is rather – or at least equally – due to the rather banal circumstances of trajectories as all Iceland-bound travellers up until the second half of the 20th came by sea and had to make a stop in the Faroe Islands before reaching Iceland. Most of them would probably not have visited the Faroe Islands otherwise.
Elizabeth Taylor (1856-1932) travelled to Iceland in 1895 and stayed on the Faroe Islands for three days. She immediately liked the islands, returned several times, and preferred the Faroe Islands to other destinations in the North. She published short essays in American journals like Forest and Stream as well as in English magazines. She never managed to publish a book and seemed to prefer essays, notes and sketches. The Faroe Islands were perfect for her, small and dispersed. While others travelled further, she was choosing to linger, staying in the pretext, slowing down, downsizing her own experiences, freeing herself of binding contexts, seeking simplicity, looking for minor things and using the term “Arctic” with irony. She was a collector and recipient rather than a mapping traveller. In one of her letters, she states, “the public wants things that are striking [...] and I fear that is beyond me”, describing herself as “slowminded” and “lazy”.
Elisabeth Taylor was a female traveller in the Victorian era and the question of gender is important to bear in mind when discussing her writings, but gender is only one variable among many. The peculiarities in her writings add a distinctive perspective to generalizing concepts like the North, the Far North and the Arctic as well as to the relationship between Iceland and the Faroe Islands. The paper focuses on these perspectives based on the travel writings by Elizabeth Taylor published in a book by her grandnephew, James Taylor Dunn, in 1997: "The Far Islands and Other Cold Places. Travel Essays of a Victorian Lady".
Irony, simplicity and solitude in the travel essays of Elizabeth Taylor
In the mind of many travellers - reflected in the books and accounts they have written - the Faroe Islands are a prefatory note to Iceland. It seems to be an impulse or idea not only supported geographically by the fact that the Faroe Islands consist of rocks in the sea whereas Iceland is a unified massive entity with volcanos and glaciers, surrounded by smaller islands. It is rather – or at least equally – due to the rather banal circumstances of trajectories as all Iceland-bound travellers up until the second half of the 20th came by sea and had to make a stop in the Faroe Islands before reaching Iceland. Most of them would probably not have visited the Faroe Islands otherwise.
Elizabeth Taylor (1856-1932) travelled to Iceland in 1895 and stayed on the Faroe Islands for three days. She immediately liked the islands, returned several times, and preferred the Faroe Islands to other destinations in the North. She published short essays in American journals like Forest and Stream as well as in English magazines. She never managed to publish a book and seemed to prefer essays, notes and sketches. The Faroe Islands were perfect for her, small and dispersed. While others travelled further, she was choosing to linger, staying in the pretext, slowing down, downsizing her own experiences, freeing herself of binding contexts, seeking simplicity, looking for minor things and using the term “Arctic” with irony. She was a collector and recipient rather than a mapping traveller. In one of her letters, she states, “the public wants things that are striking [...] and I fear that is beyond me”, describing herself as “slowminded” and “lazy”.
Elisabeth Taylor was a female traveller in the Victorian era and the question of gender is important to bear in mind when discussing her writings, but gender is only one variable among many. The peculiarities in her writings add a distinctive perspective to generalizing concepts like the North, the Far North and the Arctic as well as to the relationship between Iceland and the Faroe Islands. The paper focuses on these perspectives based on the travel writings by Elizabeth Taylor published in a book by her grandnephew, James Taylor Dunn, in 1997: "The Far Islands and Other Cold Places. Travel Essays of a Victorian Lady".
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publication status | Published - 3 Jun 2022 |
| Event | Iceland and the Faroe Islands seen from within and without: Cross-cultural perspectives, 17th -21st century - University of the Faroe Islands, Tórshavn, Faroe Islands Duration: 14 Jun 2022 → 16 Jun 2022 https://miarctic.org/news/iceland-and-the-faroe-islands-seen-from-within-and-without-cross-cultural-perspectives-17th-21st-century |
Conference
| Conference | Iceland and the Faroe Islands seen from within and without: Cross-cultural perspectives, 17th -21st century |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Faroe Islands |
| City | Tórshavn |
| Period | 14/06/22 → 16/06/22 |
| Internet address |
Keywords
- Travel Writing
- Arctic
- Faroe Islands
- Iceland
- Elizabeth Taylor