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knowledge.
ISABELLE. Was.
(New Anatomies 53)
If it is not for the political force, Isabelle will have the chance to continue her voyage, and to absorb knowledge from diverse cultures apart from her own. To be optimistic, the knowledge that Isabelle gains will always be her own treasure that can never be deprived of. Isabelle manages to realize her dream through lifelong pursuit of ceaseless journey;
though Isabelle confronts difficulties and her wish of gaining freedom is never really fulfilled, she still gains optimistic hope through traveling. Traveling becomes her
supportive belief that offers her a way out of the life struggle. Isabelle would rather go on a voyage and meet the possible loss of life and property than stay at home.
2.5 Traveling without Moving
In addition to grammatical and educational senses, commercial aspect of travel can be perceived in New Anatomies. When Natalie gains “materials and clothes” from the locals in Algiers, she makes up her mind to open “the first shop in Switzerland” and sell the products (New Anatomies 23). By means of transporting those goods back to her homeland, Natalie expects to “make a fortune” (New Anatomies 23). To Natalie, traveling to Geneva is only an approach to compromise with Isabelle because she thinks that
Isabelle will reconsider getting married as time passes by. Natalie leaves Geneva for Algiers and expects to return to Geneva. In reality, with Islam’s ethical division on traveling, Natalie does not even travel at all. Before Natalie embarks on a voyage, she already has the impression that “Arabs are very stupid” and will give people “valuable
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jewels and clothes for trinkets” (New Anatomies 18). The stereotype remains unchanged when Natalie is in Algiers. She is even more delighted to find that the locals actually give things “for nothing”: “It’s wonderful how stupid these people [the Arabs] are,” says Natalie (New Anatomies 23). In her eyes, the locals’ good deeds become foolish acts. By means of degrading the locals, Natalie manages to exclude the locals from the Europeans;
the distinction between the former and the latter thus becomes a rigid boundary. The fact that Natalie never intends to encounter the other indicates that she actually fails to complete a voyage. From this perspective, she is merely crossing the threshold rather than crossing the boundary that sets between Europe and Africa. To be more specific, Natalie can barely be called a traveler.
Jenny’s attitude toward the locals and her depiction of Algiers shows that Natalie is not the only European who can hardly be treated as a traveler. Jenny constantly attempts to make a division between the Europeans and the locals by expressing her detestation to the locals. When Isabelle mentions that she hears the sound of Arabian flute at night, Jenny shows no interest at all and rejects the idea that there is any possibility of appreciating the beauty of music:
ISABELLE. [. . . ] Listen. I hear him [an Arab] every evening, but I’ve never seen him come or go. He’s just there, suddenly, calling.
JENNY. It’s probably a beggar and he’ll come asking for money. Chase him away, Antoine. They carry diseases these people. It’s bad for the baby.
They ignore her. She shouts.
Go away, you savage, go away, go away!
Silence. (embarrassed)
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I’m so tired and nervous. This isn’t a friendly country. It’s not easy to have a baby. It doesn’t happen all by itself.
(New Anatomies 22-23)
Jenny chooses not to confirm who the flutist is and directly identifies the person as a beggar. When Jenny learns that Antoine does not respond to her order, she tries to drive the flutist away by herself.
The truth is, Jenny does not care if the flutist is really a beggar. Jenny despises the locals in the first place, and they are all the same to her. This incident also corresponds to the previous scene when she tries to wipe out her maid’s identity by consciously calling her “Fatma” rather than “Yasmina,” which is actually the real name of the maid. What Jenny is trying to do is homogenizing the locals:
JENNY. Please remember that Fatma is a native and a servant. They don’t respect you if you treat them . . .
ISABELLE. Her name isn’t Fatma.
JENNY. Their names are unpronounceable. We call them all Fatma.
ISABELLE. Her name is beautiful: Yasmina.
(New Anatomies 19)
Calling the maid Fatma, Jenny wipes out Yasmina’s identity and forces Yasmina to accept a new given one, Fatma. Jenny flattens Yasmina’s identity because Fatma refers not just to a specific person but it is a name that categorizes all maids. Similarly, when Jenny calls the flutist the beggar, she is abruptly casting away the flutist’s identity. Jenny drives the flutist away and deprives him of the chance to introduce his name to the readers/audience. The flutist’s case is not in the least better than Yasmina’s. Jenny
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depicts Algiers as an unfriendly country, and even calls the street performer a filthy person that carries diseases. All the accusations make Algeria a barbaric country.
Through degrading the Algerians, Jenny is trying to elevate the status of the Europeans.
This process of degradation lightens up the difference between Europe and Africa through the discourse of hierarchy and hygiene.
In New Anatomies, most Europeans draw out the difference between Europe and Africa by means of degrading the Algerians. It is through comparison from one locale to the other that brings about the break between places. When pointing out the difference between the arriving point and the departure point (home), the protagonists are
simultaneously distinguishing home from destination. It is essential to notice that the sense of difference is what draws the boundary rather than the exact geographical demarcation. The travelers are those who cross the boundary and encounter the other;
they become the mediators that connect the two separable places. Unlike the other
Europeans, Isabelle manages to learn about the new culture and gets to know the locals in Algiers without prejudice. Isabelle’s sincere desire to break the boundary between self and the other has successfully turned her into a traveler, who truly encounters the other.
The voyage to Africa further enables Isabelle to experience and to observe the foreigner’s problems within the colonist context in a voyage.
New Anatomies depicts the society in the nineteenth century. It is the time when the
Europeans possess ethnocentric prejudice against the Africans, and regard the Africans as savages.9 Debbie Lisle in The Global Politics of Contemporary Travel Writing states that“travelogues can help us understand the discursive terrain of global politics because they
9 Please see Catherine Barnes Stevenson. Victorian Women Travel Writers in Africa (Boston: Twayne, 1982), p. 1-12.
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are an important part of the cultural struggle over how we describe and represent the
‘realities’ of global life” (277). Besides the foreigner’s problem, Isabelle’s traveling experience happens to record the struggles and inequality that arise in the colonial period and also slightly touches upon the conflict between western and Muslim societies.
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Chapter Three
Encountering the Other10