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Inhospitality, Colonialism and Gender in Mary Eyre’s Over the Pyrenees into Spain

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Abstract

This article analyses the representation of Spain as an inhospitable country in Mary Eyre’s Over the Pyrenees into Spain, a bitter narrative of the solitary journey that this neglected Victorian writer pursued across parts of the Peninsula during the summer of 1865. Drawing on diverse approaches to hospitality and inhospitality, I will argue that Eyre chose to purposely build a negative image of Spain by blending the two main ideologies that, according to Sara Mills, influenced Victorian women’s travel books, namely, the discourse of colonialism and the discourse of gender. Eyre, who during her journey was harassed and insulted by her triple status of woman, foreigner and solo traveller, used her narrative to ultimately take revenge and describe the country in a way no other Victorian travellers had done before.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: Jan. 20, 2025 | Accepted: March 20, 2025 | Published June 20, 2025 | Language: es

Keywords Spain • Inhospitalidad • Literatura de viajes • Inhospitality • Travel writing • Género • España • Gender • Mary Eyre • Colonialismo • Colonialism

Copyright © 2025 Pere Gifra-Adroher. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/Ri/2037-6588/2025/24/006