Negotiating Pride and Vulnerability in Maud Howe’s Roma Beata – Letters from the Eternal City

Abstract

Women’s travel narratives have long occupied an ambivalent position within dominant cultural frameworks, simultaneously supporting imperialist discourses and offering critical insights into ethnocentrism and cultural biases. This essay examines the intersections of domesticity, gender, and imperialism in Maud Howe Elliott’s Roma Beata: Letters from the Eternal City (1904), focusing on her portrayals of post-unitarian Italy (1884–1900). By positioning Howe’s perspectives within the broader transnational currents of 19th-century travel writing and its marketplace, this essay draws on postcolonial and gender theories to analyze her negotiation of the traditional American / Anglo-Saxon gaze on Southern Europe. At the same time, this essay pays attention to Howe Elliott’s complex relationship with emergent US imperialism and her own roots in New England’s culture, by adopting the emotional framing of pride and vulnerability. Finally, by emphasizing the critical interplay between domesticity and the imperialist thought, this essay explores Howe’s evolving engagement with the Italian scene (symbolized by the terrace of her Roman home).

Keywords

• american studies
• travel studies
• maud howe elliott
• women’s travel writing
• american imperialism