Abstract
Brazilian female writer Nísia Floresta (1810-1885) traveled from Brazil to Europe in 1856 and lived there until her death. In this period abroad, she published a series of writings, among them, two travel accounts. In this article, I analyze her trajectory as a female traveler in Europe as well as a prolific writer. Through her writing and based on historical primary sources about her experience, I demonstrate how Nísia Floresta left her home country in the search of her freedom of gender, aiming to escape patriarchal norms of Brazilian family and society. My argument is that her travels were a liberating experience that enabled her to defy the social expectations imposed on upper-class women of patriarchal and bourgeois societies.
Keywords
Nísia Floresta; nineteenth century; woman travel writer