Weaving a Journey: 19th-Century Iceland in an Italian Female Narrative

Abstract

At the end of the 19th century an Italian woman writer, Maria Savi Lopez, published the fictionalized version of a journey to Iceland, Nei Paesi del Nord (In the Northern Countries, 1893). Through the eyes of a group of English people sailing from their home country, the author weaves a choral narrative that spreads among the Italian reading public heterogeneous information about largely unknown cultures, folklores and natural environments. The narrative discourse creates a structured net, where different voices perform specific roles and encourage the readers to partake their adventures while sailing into the protective, comfortable atmosphere of the steamer.

Keywords

• iceland
• environment
• folklore
• history
• travel literature
• women’s writing