Journeying into the Self: A Postmodern Feminist Reading of Select Female Travel Narratives

Abstract

The rejection of attributing fixed essences to anything is known as non-essentialism. It refers to the rejection of assigning men and women fixed qualities in the context of postmodern feminism. This essay uses a postmodern feminist lens to examine and compare Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia with Shivya Nath's The Shooting Star: A Girl, Her Backpack, and the World. As Shivya Nath challenges the stereotypes surrounding independent women travelers and strives to escape being confined to a set of guidelines for how a single woman should travel, Elizabeth Gilbert, in her mid-thirties, is forced to consider whether or not she truly is happy and leading a fulfilling life due to a failed marriage. They both embarked on quests to find solutions. Both travelogues offer an insightful look into the minds of their respective authors, discussing how they defy expectations and deal with patriarchal rules. In the process, Gilbert and Nath both change and come to terms with who they are.