Searching for Home Away from Home: Italy and the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Travel Writing of Waleria Countess Tarnowska and Anna Countess Potocka, 1800s-1820s
Author(s)
Agata Piotrowska
Date Issued
2023
Type
article
Volume
6
Start Page
153
End Page
173
Journal
Abstract
Th is article explores Italy of the fi rst two decades of the 1800s as described by two countesses from the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: Anna Potocka [1779–1867] and Waleria Tarnowska [1782–1849]. Its main focus is on the role the origins of these two women, representative for a larger number of Polish-Lithuanian elite female travellers, had on their experience of Italian culture and society, in
which they acted as both members and external observers. Places such as Rome or Naples are analysed as spaces of encounter of Polish-Lithuanian society abroad, as well as international elites of the time of the Partitions of the Commonwealth and the Napoleonic Wars. Further stress is put on similarities and differences between the lifestyles, education and social norms of the Polish-Lithuanian women and the foreign societies, which become apparent based on commentaries and comparisons included in the travelogues analysed. Th e article concludes with a brief overview of some aspects of the afterlife of these two women’s journeys, namely networks and connections of importance which they formed while in Italy.
Subjects
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EEHR 6-2023 Piotrowska.pdf
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Format
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