Chroniqueur, philosophe, artiste. Figures du voyageur dans la littérature française aux XVIIIe-XIXe siecles
Chronicler, Philosopher, Artist. Figures of Traveler in 18th-19th-Century French Literature
Contributor(s): Małgorzata Sokołowicz (Editor), Izabella Zatorska (Editor)
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, French Literature, Philology, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: traveller; French literature; 18th century; 19th century; travel literature
Summary/Abstract: This volume focuses on the figure of the traveller emerging from the French literature of the 18th-19th centuries (real and imaginary travels). Eminent specialists from universities around the world (Réunion, Montpellier, Nancy, Lausanne, Szeged, etc.) analyse the changes taking place in the way the traveller is represented. Do travel accounts always focus on real trips? Does travel literature speak (only) about travels? What is the aim of imaginary travels? Does each literary period have its own model of travelling? The volume provides answers to all of those questions and much more.
- E-ISBN-13: 978-83-235-5106-5
- Print-ISBN-13: 978-83-235-5098-3
- Page Count: 203
- Publication Year: 2021
- Language: French
«Il n’y a point d’état plus immoral que celui de voyageur»: autour des contributions de Diderot à l’Histoire des deux Indes
«Il n’y a point d’état plus immoral que celui de voyageur»: autour des contributions de Diderot à l’Histoire des deux Indes
(«Of all trades, being a traveller is the most immoral»: about Diderot’s Contributions to the Histoire des deux Indes)
- Author(s):Jean-Michel Racault
- Language:French
- Subject(s):Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, French Literature, Philology, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:12-26
- No. of Pages:15
- Keywords:Diderot; Raynal; travel; traveller; anti-colonialism; rhetoric; irony
- Summary/Abstract:Borrowed from one of Diderot’s anonymous contributions to Raynal’s famed anticolonialist encyclopedia of travels (1770-1780), the quotation opposes strongly to a long-standing humanist tradition of travelling as a precious medium of education, especially for young men, established at the sixteenth century from classical sources. New eighteenth-century representations of travel as useless or even morally dangerous (Muralt, Rousseau) result in Diderot’s moral condemnation of the European traveller, mainly on political grounds. However, his so-called “anticolonialism”, highly rhetorical and ambiguous, may be seen both as an expression of his own dialogic turn of mind and as a kind of mock echo to Raynal’s personal ambiguities.
Peut-on se fier au voyageur? Réponses de l’abbé Prévost dans les introductions de l’Histoire générale des voyages (1746-1759)
Peut-on se fier au voyageur? Réponses de l’abbé Prévost dans les introductions de l’Histoire générale des voyages (1746-1759)
(Can We Trust the Traveller? Prévost’s Answers in his Introductions to the Histoire générale des voyages (1746-1759))
- Author(s):Sylviane Albertan-Coppola
- Language:French
- Subject(s):Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, French Literature, Philology, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:27-38
- No. of Pages:12
- Keywords:travel narratives; definition of the traveller; credibility of the traveller; criticism of sources; 18th century
- Summary/Abstract:The publication of the "Histoire générale des voyages", with its subtitle the "Nouvelle collection de toutes les relations de voyages par mer et par terre, qui ont été publiéesjusqu’à présent dans les différentes langues de toutes les nations connues", caused to Prévost a number of problems. The introductions, which open different parts (and books) of the "Histoire", show how the author copes with sources. Through his meticulous work of analysis a traveller figure takes shape. Prévost presents merits and weaknesses of travellers and brings about the question of the reliability of travel narratives he presents in his "Histoire".
Le statut esthétique, ontologique et épistémologique du narrateur dans "Le Monde vrai" de Marivaux
Le statut esthétique, ontologique et épistémologique du narrateur dans "Le Monde vrai" de Marivaux
(The Aesthetic, Ontological and Epistemological Status of the Narrator in Marivaux’s "Le Monde vrai" ("The True World"))
- Author(s):Izabella Zatorska
- Language:French
- Subject(s):Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, French Literature, Philology, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:39-51
- No. of Pages:13
- Keywords:Marivaux; Cabinet du philosophe; traveler; meta-discourse; reality and appearance
- Summary/Abstract:Brought about by the reflections of the author-narrator of "Le Cabinet du philosophe" ("In The Philosopher’s Study"), Marivaux’s last jornalistic endeavour (1734-1738), the narrative fiction that occupies the last six issues, could make one puzzled, even disturbed. From the second episode, the title metamorphoses from "Le Voyageur dans le Nouveau Monde into Monde vrai [Suite du]" ("The True World [Continuation of]"), as if the narrator, with his own way of being and seeing, wanted to disappear behind the result of the changes in his vision of humanity. However, it is his triple status that determines what follows. Our analysis will therefore look at the status of the narrator-traveler, at his own perception of that status, at his evolution and at the commentary on it. Marivaux’s reflections could well have a universalist implication, even one that points towards the socio- and ethnological relations and their critiques of later centuries.
Voyageur-historien ou romancier-philosophe? Quelques leçons du voyage imaginaire
Voyageur-historien ou romancier-philosophe? Quelques leçons du voyage imaginaire
(Traveller-Historian or Novelist-Philosopher? A Few Lessons from the Imaginary Journey)
- Author(s):François Rosset
- Language:French
- Subject(s):Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, French Literature, Philology, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:53-68
- No. of Pages:16
- Keywords:imaginary journey; truthfulness; fiction; Garnier; Casanova
- Summary/Abstract:The paper proposes a reflection on the relationship between real and fictitious travellers, between authentic and imaginary journeys. The discursive articulation that makes the traveller witness a subject of speech allows us to define the conditions in which the problematic relationship between the experience of the real world and its narrative is established. It is also on this relationship that the interdependence between the narratives of real journeys and the narratives of imaginary journeys is based. The journey, as an act of narrative, can then be perceived as a figuration or metonymy of fiction itself.
Nicolas Klimius, Pierre Wilkins et Édouard Alfrède – quelle définition du voyageur?
Nicolas Klimius, Pierre Wilkins et Édouard Alfrède – quelle définition du voyageur?
(Nicholas Klimius, Peter Wilkins and Édouard Alfrède – a Definition of Traveller)
- Author(s):Stanisław Świtlik
- Language:French
- Subject(s):Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, French Literature, Philology, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:69-83
- No. of Pages:15
- Keywords:imaginary travel; Ludvig Holberg; Robert Paltock; Giacomo Casanova
- Summary/Abstract:The existence of travellers in the 18th-century reality encourages to search the definition of their characters. Three examples of literary imaginary travels help to define the traveller who becomes an explorer, a master of a new land. The article is an attempt to show to which extend the definition of an usurper, a “providential man” and of a conqueror are relevant to the travels to the unknown lands by Nicholas Klimius, Peter Wilkins and Édouard Alfrède.
Cunégonde, l’autre candide? Figure d’une voyageuse compulsive dans le récit voltairien, entre domination et émancipation
Cunégonde, l’autre candide? Figure d’une voyageuse compulsive dans le récit voltairien, entre domination et émancipation
(Cunégonde, Another Candide? A Figure of a Compulsive Traveller in the Voltairean Narrative, Between Domination and Emancipation)
- Author(s):Linda Gil
- Language:French
- Subject(s):Theoretical Linguistics, Studies of Literature, French Literature, Philology, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:84-99
- No. of Pages:17
- Keywords:woman; heroine; travel; violence; learning; philosophy
- Summary/Abstract:Reduced to an intermittent and caricaturized figure of a sexual object, Cunégonde is, at a closer reading, a strong character, sensitive and intelligent. Her forced trip is a discovery of female condition through the world, a real experience which forces the heroine to reconsider her destiny. Her philosophical learning is coherent and much quicker than this of the male hero. Pragmatism, sensibility and lucidity are the values we need to reconsider in this feminist reading of Candide. What questions does its trajectory pose in terms of education, gender relations, alterity, construction, violence, domination and women’s emancipation?
Diderot promeneur solitaire à Bourbonne et à Langres (1770)
Diderot promeneur solitaire à Bourbonne et à Langres (1770)
(Diderot, a Lonely Walker in Bourbonne and Langres (1770))
- Author(s):Odile Richard-Pauchet
- Language:French
- Subject(s):Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, French Literature, Philology, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:101-114
- No. of Pages:14
- Keywords:Diderot; travelogue; epistolary; encyclopedia; walk; hydrotherapy
- Summary/Abstract:Diderot’s Travels in Bourbonne and Langres, two small towns in his childhood’s countryside in the East of France, tell us about different matters he had to deal within the summer of 1770: marry his daughter Angelique to a gentleman from Langres, make friends again with his brother, run a love affair in Bourbonne, a famous spa town. Unfortunately, nothing happens as he has expected. Despite his efforts to write a scientific report from these two places, the encyclopedist fails to conceal his sorrow and lets his mood appear, in a near-Rousseauistic manner of writing.
Éclairer la figure du voyageur à la fin des Lumières: du "Voyage à l’île de France" de Bernardin de Saint-Pierre au projet de sa réédition
Éclairer la figure du voyageur à la fin des Lumières: du "Voyage à l’île de France" de Bernardin de Saint-Pierre au projet de sa réédition
(Highlighting the Figure of the Traveller at the End of the Enlightenment: from the "Voyage à l’île de France" by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre to the Plan for its Reissue)
- Author(s):Alain Guyot
- Language:French
- Subject(s):Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, French Literature, Philology, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:115-127
- No. of Pages:13
- Keywords:Bernardin de Saint-Pierre; travel account; figure of the traveller; Indian Ocean; literarity
- Summary/Abstract:It is now widely known that the Voyage à l’île de France (1773) by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre is no longer seen as an engineering thesis, but not yet as a literary work, mainly because of the far too little place given to the figure of the traveller. Nonetheless, it is less known that, in a reissue project which was never completed, the author intended to give to this figure a more important place. For what reasons? In what way? This paper will attempt to answer those questions.
La figure kantienne du voyageur dans les "Lettres westphaliennes" de Charles de Villers (1797)
La figure kantienne du voyageur dans les "Lettres westphaliennes" de Charles de Villers (1797)
(The Kantian Figure of the Traveller in the "Westphalian Letters" by Charles de Villers (1797))
- Author(s):Nicolas Brucker
- Language:French
- Subject(s):Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, French Literature, Philology, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:128-143
- No. of Pages:16
- Keywords:travel; Kantianism; Villers; Staël; emigrant; cultural transfer
- Summary/Abstract:Charles de Villers, known as the French introducer of Kant’s philosophy, chose in his first Kant presentation to adopt the genre of “philosophical letters”. The traveller of the Westphalian Letters, published in 1797 in Berlin, is a French emigrant acquainted with German culture. His discovery of German cultural realities obeys the Kantian critical approach, especially through the abilities to feel and to know. Kant himself is presented through an allegory: intercultural transfer simplifies Kantianism for greater efficiency. Villers came to Kantianism through the detour of magnetism and homeopathy, which both proceed by desubstantializing material. Literature makes Kant travel from one country to another taking into account trade needs, even if it is not obvious at first glance. Finally cultural mediation stands as a collective work, as shown by the collaboration between Staël and Villers.
Les russeries d’un peintre-voyageur au XVIIIe siècle: Le Prince vu par les critiques d’art de son temps
Les russeries d’un peintre-voyageur au XVIIIe siècle: Le Prince vu par les critiques d’art de son temps
(The Russeries of an 18th-Century Painter-Traveller: the Art of Le Prince in the Critical Writings of his Time)
- Author(s):Katalin Bartha-Kovács
- Language:French
- Subject(s):Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, French Literature, Philology, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:145-164
- No. of Pages:20
- Keywords:russerie; exoticism; Diderot; Le Prince; Boucher; Watteau
- Summary/Abstract:The aim of this paper is to examine some works of Jean-Baptiste Le Prince representing everyday life, and called russeries, through the Salon critics written primarily by Diderot. Adopting an aesthetic perspective, it aims to unveil the reasons for Diderot’s reserve towards the painter’s compositions, which can be traced, for the most part, to the discrepancy between the exotic subject matter and the idyllic manner of its representation according to the conventions of Rococo aesthetics.
Vers une écriture de l’humeur inquiète: le Voyage musical en Allemagne et en Italie de Berlioz
Vers une écriture de l’humeur inquiète: le Voyage musical en Allemagne et en Italie de Berlioz
(Towards a Writing of Wandering Mood: On Berlioz’s Voyage musical en Allemagne et en Italie)
- Author(s):Aleksandra Wojda
- Language:French
- Subject(s):Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, French Literature, Philology, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:165-179
- No. of Pages:15
- Keywords:musical travel; literature – music; Romanticism; Berlioz; music-literature studies
- Summary/Abstract:The paper is devoted to Hector Berlioz’s Voyage musical en Allemagne et en Italie (1844), which offers a particularly interesting variant of musical travel writing that emerges in nineteenth-century France. The analysis of the composer’s prose questions specific aspects of Berlioz’s creative imagination and literary poetics that disclose deeper anthropological and aesthetical implications. The representations of alternative, solitary paths of the wandering hero, the alternate syntactic rhythms and variable tempi of the narrative, the constant play with literary conventions appear as different articulations of new dynamics of the moving, “musical” modern identity that emerges through his writing. The palimpsest-like model of the composer’s creation, as well as his transgressive, eccentric deconstruction of topical representations of the visited countries, converge with these aspects of Berlioz’s poetics that seem to be constantly fostered by the dialectic tension between creative energy of the ever moving self and the necessarily well-delineated dimension of the work of art.
Un voyageur qui peint, un voyageur qui écrit… Le double (?) regard de Gustave Guillaumet
Un voyageur qui peint, un voyageur qui écrit… Le double (?) regard de Gustave Guillaumet
(A Traveller Who Paints, a Traveller who Writes… The Double (?) Look of Gustave Guillaumet)
- Author(s):Małgorzata Sokołowicz
- Language:French
- Subject(s):Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, French Literature, Philology, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:180-198
- No. of Pages:19
- Keywords:Gustave Guillaumet; travel; text; image; intermediality; Algeria
- Summary/Abstract:The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between text and image in the works of Gustave Guillaumet (1840-1887), a French painter, who – after having several times visited Algeria – started to publish in Nouvelle Revue short stories inspired by his travels. After his death, they were edited conjunctly under the title Tableaux algériens (1888) and constitute, altogether with Guillaumet’s paintings, an interesting example of intermediality. Following the brief presentation of the artist, three types of relationships between his texts and paintings are to be defined: equivalence, explication and correspondence. From those relationships emerges a particular type of traveller, the one who paints and writes, but who also carefully observes the world and tries to render it in his works, regardless of the medium chosen.
