Views on Europe

The history of travel has long been constructed and described almost exclusively as a history of "e;European"e;, male mobility, without, however, explicitly making the gender and whiteness of the travellers a topic. The anthology takes this as an occasion to focus on journeys to Europe that gave "e;non-Europeans"e; the opportunity to glance at "e;Europe"e; and to draw a picture of it by themselves. So far, little attention has been paid to the questions with which attributes these travellers endowed "e;Europe"e; and its people, which similarities and differences they observed and which idea(s) of "e;Europe"e; they produced. The focus is once again on "e;Europe"e;, but not as the starting point for conquests or journeys. From a postcolonial and gender historical view, the anthology's contributions rather juxtapose (self-)representations of "e;Europe"e; with perspectives that move in a field of tension between agreement, contradiction and oscillation.