The Sea Voyage as a Marriage Snare: Gender in Novels about the Passage between the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies (1869–1891)

Abstract

ABSTRACT Nineteenth century fiction about the sailing ships (around the Cape) that crossed the seas between the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies between 1850 and 1890 are presented as micro colonies in the novels: a condensed version of colonial society. In the analyzed novels, women are represented as passengers who are finding their ways to exercise power in a colonial micro cosmos that is been dominated by white men.