from the monomythic quests of Richard Burton and Henry Layard in the nineteenth century to the more reflexive encounters described by contemporary writers such as Amitav Ghosh. The truth, as and work make clear, is a little more complicated Ross’s life than that. After providing a brief biography of Ross, I describe how her travel writing simultaneously refutes and conforms to the conventions of its romantic, imperial, and masculine heritage. I focus remarkably modern depictions of both herself and on Ross’s her subjects. I then refer to an incident not recorded in memoir but reported by the Ross’s British newspaper in which the author encounters two bands of robbers while Times traveling between Isfahan and Shiraz. The move Ross undergoes from representing the other to being represented herself is just one of the ironies contained in the journey from to the of Miss and the A Lady Doctor in Bakhtiari Land Times’s “Adventures Ross,” trajectory of her story reveals how her own interventions into the imperial romantic genre were, in turn, buried by the continuing survival of the genre itself. Elizabeth Ness Macbean Ross, 1878–1915 Ross was born on in 1878, and grew up in a large middle class family in Valentine’s Day the Scottish Highlands. Her father was a bank manager, and two of her seven siblings were also medics (“Obituary,” 1915). Ross graduated from the prestigious Glasgow Medical School in 1901, a university which, seven years earlier, had become the first in Scotland to confer degrees upon women; Ross received her MB and ChB in the company of only twenty-six other female graduands and only eight other female doctors. Ross and her cohort studied not alongside their male contemporaries, but in the purpose-built medical facilities in Queen Margaret College, home to first women students Glasgow’s (University of Glasgow 2013). She struggled with her final exams, having to re-take a
from the monomythic quests of Richard Burton and Henry Layard in the nineteenth century to the more reflexive encounters described by contemporary writers such as Amitav Ghosh. The truth, as Ross’s life and work make clear, is a little more complicated than that. After providing a brief biography of Ross, I describe how her travel writing simultaneously refutes and conforms to the conventions of its romantic, imperial, and masculine heritage. I focus on Ross’s remarkably modern depictions of both herself and her subjects. I then refer to an incident not recorded in Ross’s memoir but reported by the British Times newspaper in which the author encounters two bands of robbers while traveling between Isfahan and Shiraz. The move Ross undergoes from representing the other to being represented herself is just one of the ironies contained in the journey from A Lady Doctor in Bakhtiari Land to the Times’s “Adventures of Miss Ross,” and the trajectory of her story reveals how her own interventions into the imperial romantic genre were, in turn, buried by the continuing survival of the genre itself. Elizabeth Ness Macbean Ross, 1878–1915 Ross was born on Valentine’s Day in 1878, and grew up in a large middle class family in the Scottish Highlands. Her father was a bank manager, and two of her seven siblings were also medics (“Obituary,” 1915). Ross graduated from the prestigious Glasgow Medical School in 1901, a university which, seven years earlier, had become the first in Scotland to confer degrees upon women; Ross received her MB and ChB in the company of only twenty-six other female graduands and only eight other female doctors. Ross and her cohort studied not alongside their male contemporaries, but in the purpose-built medical facilities in Queen Margaret College, home to Glasgow’s first women students (University of Glasgow 2013). She struggled with her final exams, having to re-take a
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