The Arabian Desert in English Travel Writing Since 1950 : A Barren Legacy? (Paperback)

Acknowledgements

Preface

Introduction: Arabia, the Land of Legend

• The margins of Western desert travel in Arabia
• Locating Arabia
• Arabia as a country of the mind
• The Lawrence and Thesiger legacy
• Mapping the chapters

Chapter 1. In Literary Footsteps: The Prevalence of "Second Journeys"

• A tradition of intertextuality
• Learning from the past ? Blackmore in the footsteps of Lawrence
• Writing about the present ? Kirkby and Hayes in the footsteps of Thesiger
• Opportunities for the future ? Evans in the footsteps of Thomas

Chapter 2. Desert and Sown: The Narration of Progress and Modernity

• Desert but not deserted ? Asher’s modern Bedu
• The desert mechanised ? Toy’s travels by Land Rover
• The desert politicised ? Morris and a Sultan’s pageant
• The desert urbanised ? Raban and a camel-free account
• The desert historicised ? Mackintosh-Smith’s inverse archaeology

Chapter 3: Gendering the Desert: Women and Desert Narratives

• Where are the women? Western women’s travels in Arabia
• "Pay, pack and follow" ? women as desert writers
• The siren trope
• The "veiled best-seller"
• Desert as an inconstant space

Chapter 4. Wonderment and Wilderness: Desert Science Writing

• Delighting in sand grouse
• George and the neo-sublime
• Walker and Pittaway in amateur pursuits
• Winser in search of solutions
• Staging the desert for Western audiences

Chapter 5: Desert as Shared Space

• Post-tourism and the accelerated sublime
• The modern secular pilgrimage
• Democratisation of the desert experience

Conclusion: Barren Legacy?

Bibliography

Index