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Duty Free
Ros Pesman
其他書名
Australian Women Abroad
出版Oxford University Press, 1996
主題History / GeneralSocial Science / Anthropology / Cultural & SocialSocial Science / Ethnic Studies / Australian & Oceanian StudiesSocial Science / Women's StudiesTravel / General
ISBN01955363989780195536393
URLhttp://books.google.com.hk/books?id=mhsqAAAAYAAJ&hl=&source=gbs_api
註釋Travel has long been a metaphor for personal freedom. Nostalgia for the release and intensity of overseas travel is common, as Ros Pesman reveals in her illuminating account of Australian women's travel from the 1870s to the arrival of the jumbo jet. Readers will be surprised by the scale on which Australian women travelled during this period. Except in times of war, far more young women than men boarded the ships to Europe. There was an assumption from the first days of White settlement that women of means would travel abroad for pleasure and improvement. The wife of one Tasmanian premier made 33 separate visits to Europe. Some went for three months, some never returned. Others came home belatedly in straitened circumstances after the defining experience of their lives. Relying on letters, diaries and her own interviews, Pesman examines countless noted and unfamiliar women who engaged in this social ritual. Pesman analyses their different motives and expectations. For many, Europe seemed to promise a kind of 'finish' or sophistication they felt they could not attain in Australia. For some, presentation at Court and a more refined accent represented a passport to security and acceptability. For others - artists, bohemians, socialists, feminists - travel offered degrees of intellectual, sexual and political freedom. Some women journeyed overseas to alleviate suffering caused by war, to campaign for peace, and to join international movements. Some went as pilgrims to the Soviet Union in the 1930s, seeking brave new worlds. While genteel notions of class and femininity were reinforced for some travellers, for others, new ways of living became possible.