Module Information

Academic rationale:
The aim of this module is to study the variety of possible links between forms of travel and their literary expression from the 16th to the 20th century. After a general introduction and an overview of the literature of ‘art of travel’ (whether travel is desirable, and under what conditions), the organizing principle of the module is geography. Each destination will be studied through a selection of texts, illustrating the roles these specific travel practices, as well as the changes within the perception of a country, texts played in the contemporary imagination, as well as in the posterity.

Module aims:
One of the main objectives of the module is to provide students both with a general knowledge about travel as social and intellectual practice and travel literature as form of writing and (possibly) a genre. The second, equally important goal is to provide an ‘introduction to research’, to raise students’ curiosity and independent thinking, and to equip them with a wide range of critical reading and analyzing skills related to travel as a social practice and as a text.

This module, taught in French, will approach the various forms of writing a travel experience in 16th-20th century France. Travel literature was among the most important forms of reading in the early modern and modern period. At this period, most people were not in a position to travel themselves, thus their reading of travelogues was their main source of information about the world.

In the second half of the 20th century, some (like Marc Augé) suggested that with the disappearance of the ‘other’ and the rise of the ‘same’, travel and travel literature shall disappear. Others criticized Augé’s ‘apocalyptic fallacy’ and pointed at the numerous forms of expression, occasionally stepping beyond the purely textual, through which travel writing was able to renew itself

The module will offer first of all a theoretical knowledge of the particularities of travel as a text in various periods; its changing relationship to notions such as “truth” and “authorship”; the changing ideas about its value as a form of “polite entertainment” and/or a crucial source of information. From the 19th century, we see new directions – on the one hand, an increased level of individualism expressed through travels; on the other, travels into other lands becoming expressing ‘humanitarian/humanist’ values. Parallel to this, students will study the changing relationship between France and the various destinations studied during the mobile, through the mirror of travel, this publicized personal experience

1. Introduction: travel, literature, travel literature Tutorial: methods and tools for research in travel studies
2. The ‘art of travel’ and educational travel. Tutorial: how to read instructional literature
3. France: ‘tours de France’, tradition and innovation.
4. Italy: the fascinating past and the frustrating present
5. England: France’s mirror in the 17th-18th centuries – Tutorial: reading travel texts as reflections of propaganda
(around reading week: individual consultation on the choice of research topic: this can be suggested by the students or by the convener)
6. British Isles: Ossian and the Celtic links
7. Asia: Jesuit missions, Orientalism(s), new spiritualisms
8. America: the democratic example and the frustrating comparison
9. Africa: from trade and antiquarianism to colonialism and beyond
10. seminar+tutorial: in-class presentations; concluding remarks on the semester; ‘troubleshooting’ for the preparation of essays