Voyages et migrations

INTRODUCTION

MODE D’EMPLOI ET CONSIGNES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Remarques préliminaires sur les épreuves du CAPES rénové . . . . .15

“Voyages et migrations” : cadrage du B.O. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

Thèmes et axes d’étude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Structure et intérêts du présent ouvrage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Enjeux et problématiques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

CONSEILS MÉTHODOLOGIQUES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

Appréhender les textes et aboutir à une problématique . . . . . . . . . .20

Gérer son temps et s’appliquer à la mise en forme . . . . . . . . . . . . .24

Les attentes du jury : écueils à éviter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

REPÈRES

TRAVEL, JOURNEYS OF SELF-DISCOVERY, EXILE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29

The ambivalence of movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29

Defining movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29

MAIN CONCEPTS AND QUESTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

The self and the world . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

The self and the other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32

Estrangement in the familiar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

The location of writing and rewriting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34

TRAVEL NARRATIVES IN LITERATURE: FROM EUROPEAN TO AMERICAN EXPLORATION

TRAVEL NARRATIVES: MULTIPLE GENRES AND APPROACHES

TRAVEL WRITING: GENRE AND TRADITIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37

What is travel writing? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38

Utile Dulci . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39

From outer exploration to inner exploration: a chronological perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

WRITING TRAVEL AND READING TRAVEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43

Fact vs. fiction: travellers or travel liars? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43

Mediate vs. immediate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44

New vs. old: terra incognita vs. palimpsest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46

Travelling and reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46

THE TRAVELLER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47

Home/Abroad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48

Gender and travel writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49

• Women’s travelling: a political statement? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51

• Writing as a woman? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53

• Defining masculinity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55

The traveller vs. the tourist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55

PILGRIMAGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57

Medieval pilgrimage: literal and allegorical travels . . . . . . . . . . . . .58

Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (1386-7) . . . . . . . . . . . .60

The Hajj narrative in English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61

Malcolm X’s “Letter from Mecca” (1964) and Autobiography (1965) . . . 62

EXPLORATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Renaissance explorations: the Age of Discovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64

Exploring for science: from scientist to legend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65

• James Cook (1728-1779) and the Pacific . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66

• Mungo Park (1771-1806) and Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67

Imperial exploration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69

• Filling the blank spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69

• The “monarch-of-all-I-survey” trope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70

• Sir Richard Burton’s Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage (1855-1856) . . . . . 71

TOURS: HOME AND ABROAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73

The Grand Tour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73

The Home Tour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74

The beautiful, the sublime and the picturesque . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75

Touring the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76

TRAVEL WRITING IN THE MODERN AGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78

The end of travel? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78

The 1920s and 1930s: the golden age of travel? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80

The 1970s and 1980s: the renaissance of travel writing? . . . . . . . . .80

• Bruce Chatwin and postmodern travel writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82

Travelling England: exploring the familiar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .84

AMERICAN JOURNEY: VICARIOUS ENTERPRISES, EXPATRIATIONS, AND NOMADIC SELF-FINDINGS

THE JOURNEY WEST: INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87

FROM THE FIRSTAMERICAN NARRATIVES TO THE “GREATAMERICAN NOVEL”:

VICARIOUS TALES OF ADVENTURE AND LITERARY UNDERTAKINGS . . . . . . . . . .90

Journeying to America as a quest to redeem human history . . . . . . 90

Puritan captivity narratives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91

From a Puritan to a secular notion of westerly progress . . . . . . . . .92

Pushing back the frontier towards an American literary tradition:

Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93

THE BIRTH OF THE AMERICAN “I” IN THE WILDERNESS . . . . . . . . . . . . .94

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s declaration of independence from European traditions . . . . . .94

Henry David Thoreau’s solitary journey at Walden Pond . . . . . . . .96

Walt Whitman’s celebration of the “I” on the public road . . . . . . . .98

TRAVEL NARRATIVES, AN INHERENTLY ‘AMERICAN’ FORM:

JOURNEYS OF EXPLORATION, HOME-FOUNDING AND ESCAPE . . . . . . . . . . . .100

Three paths to progress: exploration, home-founding, and escape . . . . . . . 101

• Exploration vs. home-founding journeys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101

• The journey of escape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104

Writers questioning the persistent innocence of their age . . . . . . .105

Herman Melville’s Moby Dick: a novel of escape into extra-territorial seas . . . . . . . . 106

FROM THE “LOST GENERATION” TO THE “BEAT GENERATION” :

EXPATRIATION AND WRITING “IN THE AMERICAN GRAIN” . . . . . . . . . . . 112

The Lost Generation’s flight to Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .112

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby: reversing the classic American journey . . . . . . . . .114

Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises (1926): expatriation and “making it new” . . . . . . . 118

REASSESSING THE OPEN CONTINENTAL ROAD: THE BEAT GENERATION’S JOURNEY WEST . . . . . . . . . . .121

The Beats’ recording of life “In the American Grain” . . . . . . . . . .121

Jack Kerouac’s On the Road: defining the Beat Generation . . . . .123

The Beats and countercultural experiments in life and writing . . .132

Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters’ reverse “tripping” eastward . . . .133

Modern explorers of the American wilderness: Into the Wild . . . .135

MIGRATION AND EXILE:

DISPLACEMENTS, WANDERINGS AND HOMECOMINGS

INTRODUCTION

REFLECTIONS ON EXILE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

SAID AND EXILE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .144

EXILE AS A SOURCE OF INSPIRATION AND A MODE OF WRITING . . . . . . .145

KEY CONCEPTS ABOUT EXILE AND (POST)COLONIAL MIGRATIONS

ANTICOLONIALISM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147

CENTRE AND MARGIN(S) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147

COLONIALISM VS IMPERIALISM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .148

COMMONWEALTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .149

DECOLONIZATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .149

DIASPORA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .150

EXOTICISM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151

GLOBALIZATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .152

HYBRIDITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .153

MIGRATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .153

MULTICULTURALISM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .153

NATION(ALISM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .154

ORIENTALISM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .155

POSTCOLONIAL/DECOLONIAL STUDIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .156

SUBALTERNITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .157

COLONIAL NARRATIVES: DISPLACING BOTH COLONIZERS AND COLONIZED SUBJECTS

KIM (1901): A COLONIAL VERSION OF THE PICARESQUE NOVEL . . . . . .160

A quest for identity, a spy novel or a travel narrative? . . . . . . . . . .160

Movement over stillness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .163

FROM COLONIALISM TO POSTCOLONIALISM,

FROM TRAVEL AS POWER ASSERTION TO TRAVEL AS DISCOVERY . . . . . . 164

Homi Bhabha and the concept of ambivalence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .164

Looking for the “real thing”: a failed enterprise . . . . . . . . . . . . . .165

In the heart of European darkness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .169

THE MISE EN ABYME OF EXILE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .170

Joseph Conrad: A Pole writing in English about Africa and the Pacific . . . . . . 171

Karen Blixen: Out of Africa (1932) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .171

Female colonial writing on exile: a doubly minor literature? . . . .172

EXILE IN COLONIAL AND POSTCOLONIAL FICTION: RUPTURES AND ECHOES

NOSTALGIA / EAST-ALGIA: SIMILAR POETICS OF EXILE? . . . . . . . . . . . .176

“Reverse colonization”: The dangers of reducing everything to a common denominator . . 176

Writing exile from the colony and the homeland: similar poetics . . . . 178

Nostalgia: a major topos in fiction on/of exile and migration . . . 181

EXILE AND THE EXPRESSION OF TRAUMA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .183

Exile as a traumatic experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .183

Writing the traumatic experience: the use of ellipsis . . . . . . . . . . .184

Colonial and postcolonial ghosts: exile and the uncanny . . . . . . . .186

CONSTANT WANDERINGS AND MOVING SELVES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .188

Disguise and transgression: estranged identities . . . . . . . . . . . . . .188

The travelling writer: Maugham and his cosmopolitan narrators . . . . 190

Work migration and/or forced migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .191

PHANTASIZNG THE MOTHERLAND AND INVENTING NEW NATIONS . . . . .193

Salman Rushdie’s Imaginary Homelands (1991) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .194

Recreating the motherland from afar: Monica Ali’s Brick Lane (2003) and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie,

The Thing Around your Neck (2009) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .195

Inventing the new nation in Brick Lane and The Thing Around your Neck . . . . . . . . .199

SECOND GENERATION MIGRANT WRITERS: QUESTIONING IDENTITY AND THE UNKNOWN MOTHERLAND . . . .201

Identity as a quest in unstable mental spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .203

Questioning London and England’s “multicultural” and “cosmopolitan” labels . . . . . . . . .208

Impossible belonging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .211

LINGUISTIC DISPLACEMENT IN COLONIAL AND POSTCOLONIAL FICTION . . . . . 213

Linguistic displacement: feeling “other” in one’s own language . .214

Exile, short fiction and modernism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Linguistic displacement in contemporary fiction on exile in English . . . . . . . . . . . .217

RETURNS AND HOMECOMINGS

IMPOSSIBLE RETURN: FEELING OTHER IN ONE’S OWN COUNTRY . . . . . .222

Self-exile and impossible return . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .222

Disgrace (2003): a succession of figures of displacement . . . . . . .223

THE CARIBBEAN EXPERIENCE: NO HOME TO RETURN TO . . . . . . . . . . . .226

MIGRATION IN A POST-9/11 WORLD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .227

Kamila Shamsie’s Burnt Shadows (2009): Not feeling at home anywhere in the world . . . . . . . . . 227

Mohsin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007): From the bankable foreigner to the threatening outsider . . . .229

CONCLUSION ON EXILE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .230

IMAGINARY JOURNEYS: INITIATORY JOURNEYS, ADVENTURE NOVELS,

FANTASY AND SCIENCE-FICTION INITIATORY JOURNEYS

QUESTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .235

The Holy Grail and the Arthurian cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .235

John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .237

Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero’s Journey” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .239

Bruno Bettelheim and the psychoanalysis of fairy tales . . . . . . . .240

ADVENTURE LITERATURE: FROM EXOTIC WANDERINGS TO HUMOROUS, NONSENSICAL OR SATIRICAL VOYAGES

ORIGINS OF THE ADVENTURE NOVEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .245

DEFINITION OF THE ADVENTURE GENRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .246

WHAT’S IN AN ISLAND? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .248

DANIEL DEFOE’S ROBINSON CRUSOE: A PURITAN ADVENTURE STORY? .250

GULLIVER’S TRAVELS: PARODYING THE TRAVEL NARRATIVE . . . . . . . . . .254

ALICE’S NONSENSICAL ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND . . . . . . . . . . . .259

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON’S TREASURE ISLAND: BIRTH OF THE MODERN ADVENTURE NOVEL . . . . . .264

PURSUING ADVENTURE: FANTASY, SCIENCE FICTION AND THE EXPLORATION OF IMAGINARY ‘OTHER’WORLDS

THE FANTASTIC, FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION: DEFINITIONS . . . . . . .271

THE BIRTH OF FANTASY LITERATURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .272

VOYAGING OUT OF THE REAL WORLD TO RECOVER OUR LOST SENSE OF WONDER . . . . . .275

“There and Back Again”: the marvelous in J.R.R. Tolkien’s works . . . . . . . . . . . . . .275

The traveling motif in The Lord of the Rings: quest, adventure and homecoming . . . . . . . .279

TRAVELING THROUGH SPACE AND TIME IN SCIENCE FICTION WORKS . . .282

Interplanetary journeys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .283

The time-traveling journey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .284

Traveling through space and time in Interstellar, by Christopher Nolan (2014) . . . . . . . . . . . .285

CONCLUSION ON FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .287

TOOLBOX

BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

GLOSSARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .303

Laure Canadas, agrégée d'anglais, enseigne au lycée Jean-Pierre Vernant à Sèvres en classe préparatoire littéraire, en section européenne et en littérature étrangère en langue étrangère. Elle est spécialiste de littérature américaine du vingtième siècle.

Jaine Chemmachery, ancienne élève de l'ENS Lyon, agrégée d'anglais et docteur en littérature britannique, est actuellement Maîtresse de conférences en études anglaises à l’Université Paris Dauphine - PSL. Elle a rédigé une thèse sur le rapport entre modernité, colonisation et le genre de la nouvelle et travaillé plus particulièrement sur les nouvelles sur l’Empire de R. Kipling et S. Maugham. Ses travaux les plus récents portent sur les études postcoloniales, les littératures coloniales et postcoloniales et les études néo-victoriennes.

Anne-Florence Quaireau, agrégée d'anglais et docteur en littérature britannique, est actuellement PRAG à l’UFR d’études anglophones de la Faculté des lettres de Sorbonne Université. Sa thèse sur le récit de voyage d’Anna Jameson au Canada, soutenue en 2013, a remporté le prix de la SELVA (Société d’Étude de la Littérature de Voyage du monde Anglophone). Une version remaniée est en préparation aux Sorbonne Université Presses (SUP).

The ambivalence of movement

Movement is at the heart of the human condition, be it forced movement in Biblical texts, with Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden and the exile of the Hebrew people, or the ubiquitous motif of movement in Ancient myths (the Iliad, the Odysseus, the Aeneid). The movement that prevents one from settling down is first seen negatively: Adam and Eve became exiles as a consequence of their sin, and the uprooted man is an outsider, one who lives outside of the bounds of the community. He is the nomad, the stranger, the invader. In a feudal Occident where one’s identity was defined by the land one belonged to (in the eyes of justice, the serf and the land are one), movement meant running away, loss, danger, or invasion (it is the case with Romans, Barbarians, Vikings, Huns, free companies). In The Wanderer, a tenthcentury poem, a solitary traveller, driven to exile after the death of his comrades on the battlefield, laments his loss, reminiscing his past joys at court. This solitary man calls himself “anhaga” in Old English, that is to say one who does not have a house or one who is not in a closed space. But, paradoxically, the concept of travelling, whether real or metaphorical, can also be a way out of a possibly stifling entrapment. Movement also opens up many possibilities and potentialities: “Travel broadens the mind, and knowledge of distant places and people often confers status, but travellers sometimes return as different people or do not come back at all.” [HULME and YOUNGS, p. 2]. The ambivalence of movement is also that of travelling.