Analysis demonstrates cultural translation and home concepts in Atkinson's travelogue, revealing complex identities.
Other than considerations as a historical source, little has been written on Lucy Atkinson’s travelogue Recollections of Tartar steppes and their inhabitants ( 1863 ) as a work of writing. This article sets out to redress that imbalance by analysing the role of the epistolary form and the linguistic implications of travel in the construction of the memoir. We aim to demonstrate that by means of language and form, the author explores the (trans)portability of the English language as a ‘home away from home’. First, the article considers the affordances granted by Atkinson’s use of the epistolary to construct her persona and narrative. Next, it explores the cultural translation in the travelogue by zooming in on shifting stances regarding the ‘self’ and the ‘Other’ in the text, e.g. by means of various language uses, and by connecting it to the problematisation of complex notions of ‘home’ and ‘Englishness’ during her travels.
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Honinx et al. (2026) studied this question.