Transculturalism in Women Travel Writings : A Study of Selected Works

Abstract

Cultural Criticism through the travel writings plays a vital role in transculturalism and multicultural literature. It opens new horizons of thought, enhances cultural relationships and bridges differences. Besides being a source of enjoyment, travel is also a means of mental illumination in being a significant medium that enables a culture to interact with other cultures and especially the Arab culture. It is through travel of orientalists that the East and West went into a historical dialogue. Though this dialogue varied in its tone along the phases of interaction, yet it highly contributed to the realm of ideas. Travel accounts were the magical eye through which the West was able to uncover the veil of the East. Travelers burdened their descriptions of the east with feelings and emotions that created a lifelike picture in readers' minds. However, many religious factors political, social and religious factors determined the framing of the Eastern cultural image depended basically on how the travelers understood or misunderstood the Arab culture. This paper sheds light upon some feminine western travelers whom their cultural views about Arab and East culture are a foundation studies for cultural criticism .They stand with no rival, because they transcends time and gender ,and they still a lively source for contemporary studies of transculturalism .