‘Climate proof’:Mary Kingsley and the Health of Women Travellers
‘Climate proof’:Mary Kingsley and the Health of Women Travellers
Mary Kingsley was well aware that her unusually strong health during her African travels could be a source of authority and narrative power when writing her book Travels in West Africa (1897). Therefore, she contrasts her own disease resistance with the vulnerability of the other white subjects she encounters. Her life circumstance, humour and light-hearted constitution all work together to make Kingsley seem at home in the climate of Africa. This chapter traces how Victorians perceived the risk of ‘fever’, especially in the context of West Africa, in order to establish how Kingsley uses this malleable group of illnesses to stimulate readers’ worries. In contrast, Kingsley creates a vision of a healthy, white female body in the tropics, impervious to the negative influences of climate because it is already ‘in sympathy’ with them.
Keywords: fever, West Africa, humour, women explorers, female health
Edinburgh Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
