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The Exotic Portrayal of Women in Isabella Bird Bishop's Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Wan Roselezam ,
Wan Yahya ,
Farah Ghaderi  and
Kamaruzaman Jusoff
Wan Roselezam
Affiliation:
Department of English, Universiti Putra Malaysia
Wan Yahya
Affiliation:
Department of English, Universiti Putra Malaysia
Farah Ghaderi
Affiliation:
Department of English, Urmia University, Iran, Universiti Putra Malaysia
Kamaruzaman Jusoff
Affiliation:
Department of Forest Production, Universiti Putra Malaysia
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Abstract

Isabella Bird Bishop's Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan is presented as an objective picture of Persia, purportedly reflecting eye-witness accounts. Setting the narrative in its historical context and employing the concept of exoticism, this paper aims to unearth its subtle imperialist underpinnings. It argues that Bird's portrayal of Persian women and their mores and manners as exotic is an effect of a mode of representation which depicts and constructs difference based on a British-oriented system of evaluation, in line with its imperialist interest in Persia. As such, the exotic representation of Persian women in need of British benign tutelage and a chivalric mission could be interpreted as lending implicit support to Britain's colonial intervention in and imposition on Persia.

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 45 , Issue 6 , November 2012 , pp. 779 - 793
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Iranian Studies 2012

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References

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