SOURCE: Plevin, Arlene. “Women ‘Writing’ Nature: Exploring Contemporary Travelers and the Idea of Home.” In Literature of Nature: An International Sourcebook, edited by Patrick D. Murphy, pp. 440-46. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1998.

In the following essay, Plevin examines the complexities faced by women travel writers, outlining how these challenges tend to shape their journeys as well as their writing.

Gazing out over a “foreign” landscape, Elizabeth Bishop's fictitious traveler wonders about motivation and location. Bishop's poem creates the idea of a perceived lack prompting exploration: that home in itself, wherever or whatever it may be, is not sufficient. “Questions of Travel” sets up the traveler as one who questions the very idea of travel. As such, it helpfully begins a discussion about the complexities of women traveling and how they write about and shape their journeys. Examining such disparate travel writers as Robyn Davidson, Sorrel Wilby, Mary Morris...