Madama Butterfly Revised

Chapter 4 introduces a view of the journey in Japan from a female perspective. The few examples of Italian women writers in Japan are concentrated in the second half of the 20th century, in particular during the 1980s, with the increasing transformation of women’s roles in both societies. As travel was traditionally conceived of as a male privilege and dominated by his mode of narration, the chapter argues that the women’s travelogues to Japan bring (although not always) a fresh perspective and an alternative look at Japanese society, with particular regard to the image of women. This chapter builds on the reactions that Italian women travelers experienced when observing a similar process of change in gender power relations in Japan. By contrasting Eurocentric views (Angela Staude) with cosmopolitan approaches (Antonietta Pastore), this chapters shows the shortcomings of a gender theory that poses essentializing differences between men and womens’ travel narratives, while at the same time recognizes in the woman traveler a ‘potential’ ability to detect and, therefore, sanction inequalities and discriminations.