Writing the Nation, Writing the Self: Discourses of Identity in Fanny Lewald's Italienisches Bilderbuch and George Sand's Un hiver à Majorque

Travel writing is a fundamental medium in the process of the political and social changes in Europe from the late 18th to the middle of the 19th century. In particular, the processes of the formation of collective national identities and cultures (along with literatures) as well as the process of the formation of the middle class with its emphasis on the individual’s identity are implicitly depicted, performed and negotiated in travel writing of the period. It is the intercultural setting of the travelogue that furthers the performance of both national and individual identity. In my contribution, I propose a case study in which I will analyse the two travelogues Un hiver à Majorque (1842) by George Sand and Italienisches Bilderbuch (1847) by Fanny Lewald with regard to the discourses of (national, individual) identity and identify the particular structures and characteristics of the texts that make travelogues in the late 18th and 19th century a fundamental medium of the social, cultural and political developments.