Writing the End: Wilfred Thesiger, Freya Stark and the ‘Arabist tradition’

Freya Stark’s The Southern Gates of Arabia (1936) and Wilfred

Thesiger’s Arabian Sands (1959) are commonly viewed as

representing the last of the ‘Arabist tradition’. Consequently, The

Southern Gates of Arabia and Arabian Sands provide an opportunity

to examine the Arabist tradition at a genealogical point of transition.

Taking as its starting point the representational strategies deployed in

each book, this paper will examine the extent to which these strategies

are characteristic of Arabist travel writing and consider how Stark and

Thesiger might be located in the context of the tradition’s demise.

Keywords: Arabist tradition, travel writing, Freya Stark, Wilfred

Thesiger, Orientalism.