ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how visual perception determined what it was 'proper' for one to see, how this shaped travellers' presentation of themselves as 'curious' individuals and how this influenced the organization of knowledge presented in their accounts. It aims to tackle the difficult question of how women dealt with the distinctly troubled problem of sensibility. The chapter examines the rhetorical strategies which she uses to lay claim to a field of knowledge and to modes of description defined as exclusively masculine in this period. It focuses on how women whom Sophie von La Roche mentions in her writings, such as Marie Anne du Boccage (1710—1802), presented knowledge and the forms of curiosity they articulated. It reflects on the audience whom La Roche was addressing, asking whether she was intact writing primarily for a female or a male readership and what their differing expectations and demands might be.
