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Abstract:This essay recovers travel writing by Gertrude Bell, a well-known British explorer and archaeologist whose work is seldom examined in literary studies. Building on recent efforts to contextualize Bell’s early… Click to show full abstract
Abstract:This essay recovers travel writing by Gertrude Bell, a well-known British explorer and archaeologist whose work is seldom examined in literary studies. Building on recent efforts to contextualize Bell’s early texts within late-Victorian Aestheticism and Decadence, this article examines Bell’s meditations on three landscapes and historical sites across Persian Pictures (1894) and The Desert and the Sown (1907), teasing out their rich engagement with political ecologies. Suggesting that in these meditations on Near Eastern landscapes, Bell offers a Decadent political ecology that anticipates her later diplomatic endeavors, this essay offers new ways of understanding the politics of aesthetics at the fin de siècle.
Journal Title: Victorian Studies
Year Published: 2023
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