The six-year-long solo journey that Carla Serena took in her fifties and the publications that followed provide interesting – and yet unexplored – insights on two peripheral regions of the Russian Empire, namely the Caucasus and the Black Sea-Caspian Steppe. Carla Serena (Antwerp 1824 – Greece 1884) was a Belgian-born woman of Jewish origin married to a Venetian merchant who was based in London. Unexpectedly, in 1874 she abandoned her family in London and started a solo journey to the Ottoman Empire (1874-75), the Russian Empire (1874, 1875-77, 1878-79, 1881) and the Persian Empire (1877-78). Once back to Western Europe, she published a variety of scientific articles in the geographical journal Le Tour du Monde, her memoirs in the volume Mon voyage. Souvenirs personnels, and several monographs on specific sections of her expedition. My paper aims at analysing the five articles she wrote on the Caucasus in Le Tour du Monde (1880-82) and the volume Seule dans les steppes. Épisodes de mon voyage aux pays del Kalmoucks et des Kirghiz (1883), which deals with the Russian Steppe and its people. In particular, I will show how Carla Serena’s writings contribute in the studies on travel writing in the Russian Empire in a twofold way. On the one hand, Carla’s accounts are precious historical documents which depict the Caucasus and the Russian Steppe in the second half of the 19th century, as she witnessed the Russian-Ottoman war in 1877. On the other hand, her point of view is affected by her condition of being a Western European woman who travelled alone; these elements affect not only the topics she deals with but also her style, which clearly differs from earlier travellers and writers in the same regions, such as Potocki and Dumas.
Alone in the steppes: Carla Serena in the peripheries of the Russian Empire
Daniele Artoni
2019-01-01
Abstract
The six-year-long solo journey that Carla Serena took in her fifties and the publications that followed provide interesting – and yet unexplored – insights on two peripheral regions of the Russian Empire, namely the Caucasus and the Black Sea-Caspian Steppe. Carla Serena (Antwerp 1824 – Greece 1884) was a Belgian-born woman of Jewish origin married to a Venetian merchant who was based in London. Unexpectedly, in 1874 she abandoned her family in London and started a solo journey to the Ottoman Empire (1874-75), the Russian Empire (1874, 1875-77, 1878-79, 1881) and the Persian Empire (1877-78). Once back to Western Europe, she published a variety of scientific articles in the geographical journal Le Tour du Monde, her memoirs in the volume Mon voyage. Souvenirs personnels, and several monographs on specific sections of her expedition. My paper aims at analysing the five articles she wrote on the Caucasus in Le Tour du Monde (1880-82) and the volume Seule dans les steppes. Épisodes de mon voyage aux pays del Kalmoucks et des Kirghiz (1883), which deals with the Russian Steppe and its people. In particular, I will show how Carla Serena’s writings contribute in the studies on travel writing in the Russian Empire in a twofold way. On the one hand, Carla’s accounts are precious historical documents which depict the Caucasus and the Russian Steppe in the second half of the 19th century, as she witnessed the Russian-Ottoman war in 1877. On the other hand, her point of view is affected by her condition of being a Western European woman who travelled alone; these elements affect not only the topics she deals with but also her style, which clearly differs from earlier travellers and writers in the same regions, such as Potocki and Dumas.
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