Seminar paper from the year 2022 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies, grade: 2, 3, University of Constance (Fachbereich Literaturwissenschaften), course: 18th Century Orients: British Women Travellers in the Ottoman Empire, language: English, abstract: Selected letters from Elizabeth Craven’s series of letters which deal with her journey to Constantinople will be analyzed throughout this term paper. The focus of the paper is the outward journey to the Ottoman Empire and the return journey. Special attention is paid to how certain cities or countries in general are being presented by Craven, also focusing on the values of the individual cities and countries. The cities of Vienna and Athens are examined more closely and then Russia, or more precisely Petersburg, will be compared to the cities analyzed before.
The research question of this term paper is how the European cities are presented in Elizabeth Craven’s travelogues and to what extent they differ from the representation of Russia. Throughout the analysis, the question of whether there is a collective of the West is also being pursued. After an analysis of the depiction of Vienna and Craven’s experiences there, there will be a comparison with the experiences she made in Athens. The last step of the main part is to compare Vienna and Athens to Petersburg, respectively Russia in general. A final conclusion takes up all the important findings of this work.