Travel literature and traveling Irishness: An Italian case study

This chapter looks at the important societal, cultural, and historical issues relating to Irish travel to Europe in the nineteenth century. Using the case study of Julia Kavanagh’s travel book on Italy, A Summer and Winter in the Two Sicilies (1858), it identifies how travel to a European country could introduce dialogues about religion, gender, politics, and alterity. Although the field of travel out of Ireland to continental Europe has been relatively neglected, this chapter focuses on the potentialities of such research to understand how “Irishness” functioned in the world of intercultural interactions inherent in travel.Peer reviewe