Summary: | In her recent book, Spanish Women Travelers at Home and Abroad, 1850-1920: From Tierra del Fuego to the Land of the Midnight Sun, Jennifer Wood, Professor of Spanish at Scripps College, explored the writings of eleven Spanish women as they visited many lands and witnessed major historical events. From among these remarkable travel writers, Professor Wood discussed two for her Claremont Discourse Lecture -- Royal Princess Eulalia de Borbon and journalist Sofia Casanova. In 1893, Princess Eulalia was sent on a delicate mission to Cuba, Spain's last important American colony but already on the verge of rebellion, and subsequently represented Spain at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Two decades later, Casanova was the only Spanish woman writer of her day to visit the exotic cities and frozen landscapes of Russia. She remained in Eastern Europe to become the sole Spaniard, male or female, to report on the Great War from the Eastern Front. In her lecture, Professor Wood illuminated the adventures of these intrepid women by analyzing their narrative voices and the lenses of gender, class, and nationality that filtered their reporting.
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