Intertextual Temporalities in Isabella Bird’s Letters from Japan

This paper explores the multilayered sense of time in Isabella Bird’s letters and their impact on contemporary epistolary works. Her travelogue, Unbeaten Tracks in Japan (1880), offers a perspective on Japan’s cultural and social evolution during the late nineteenth century. Her letters capture the intermingling of two different historical times in Japan: a traditional way of life that had existed for centuries and the newly introduced, Westernized modern Japan. I argue that Bird’s writing also portrays the coexistence of two different temporalities—her contemporary, or ‘historical’ time, and her own subjective time—providing readers with a glimpse into her memories. Drawing on Janet Gurkin Altman’s temporal concepts in epistolary novels, I propose a fourth dimension, the intertextual register, to examine changes in the writer’s mode during the writing process. Bird’s letters showcase a shift in mode from objective observations to subjective reflections with the intertextual register playing a crucial role. Furthermore, Bird’s travelogue provides intertextual connections that extend beyond her own works. Using a novel by Kyoko Nakajima as an example, the final section examines the interplay between nineteenth-century nonfiction travel writing and contemporary Japanese fiction, arguing that Bird’s letters and their adaptations underscore the enduring power of epistolary communication.