The Theme of Exile in Chateubriand’s, Tocqueville’s and Beaumont’s American Romantic Texts. A Structural Analysis
The Theme of Exile in Chateubriand’s, Tocqueville’s and Beaumont’s American Romantic Texts. A Structural Analysis

Summary/Abstract: The present article constitutes an approach to the subject of intentional and involuntary exile in the romantic works “Atala”, René, Les Natchez by François-René de Chateaubriand, Course au Lac Onéida, Quinze Jours au Désert by Alexis de Tocqueville and Marie où l’Esclavage aux Etats-Unis by Gustave de Beaumont. Exile will be examined as a proof of love for the country (philopatrie), as a weakness or unwillingness of the French people to maintain their presence on the American soil, and as a farewell to the fallen nobility. My study will be based on the structural analysis of myth as developed and applied by the French anthropologist and ethnologist Claude Lévi-Strauss. The repeated components will be retrieved, classified and analyzed in order to demonstrate that the romantic devices and subjects used by the writers, are a mere pretext, a means through which Chateaubriand, Tocqueville and Beaumont transmit their philosophical ideas and socio-political ideologies regarding America and France.

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