Sobre la literatura de viajes en la etapa victoriana. El Atlántico cercano en Olivia M. Stone

Abstract

English travel literature reaches a remarkable development along the Victorian period. Among many other branches of special interest, a particular significance is to be granted to the group of publications devoted to the islands of the near Atlantic, namely those of Madeira and the Canaries, on which the British touristic and editorial companies have laid their attention. An illustrative piece of this production is Tenerife and its six satellites, by Olivia M. Stone, an outstanding project, in a unique format, and, no doubt, the most complete representation of the Canary group. These and other reasons present it as a very attractive object of analysis to approach, among other topics, its nature as a text and the features of the Canaries’ image depicted in its pages. This approach is focused on three chapters which reveal interesting observations and ideas, among other aspects, on Stone’s points of view concerning different matters, her attitudes with regard to the land she visits and the dwellers she meets, the main aspects her attention is focused on, and the way her female vision and sensibility are handled and expressed.