French Literature Reviews - 2026
Writings and Rewritings of Travel. Plural Perspectives.
Other Literary Studies
OLIVER, José M. / CURELL, Clara / URIARTE, Cristina G. / PICO, Berta (eds.),
Escrituras y reescrituras del viaje. Miradas plurales a través del tiempo y de las culturas, Berne, Peter Lang Verlagsgruppe (collection Liminaires), 2007, 549 p.
Early cultural manifestations show us that human history is a history of continuous displacement, so it is hardly surprising that whenever humankind first felt the need to record lived experiences, travel emerged as an inescapable theme. Focusing on the domain of writing, we find that since time immemorial—whether serving as the main subject or acting as a guiding thread, structure, symbol, or source of inspiration—this trope has been present across a diverse array of texts from various cultures. This collective volume explores issues related to the theme of travel, its written expression, and its meaning throughout history across different geographical and cultural areas, adopting an interdisciplinary perspective (linguistics, literature, history of science, art, geography, etc.). Thus, moving beyond the opposition between real and imaginary journeys and their various modes of representation, the articles gathered here address questions concerning the generic and formal aspects of original texts or their translations, while also analyzing their adaptation, dissemination, and reception.
CONTENTS:
François Moureau: Discoveries and Rediscoveries: Current State of Travel Literature Studies - Maravillas Aguiar Aguilar: The Travel Account (rihla) in Arabic Literature - Irene Aguilà Solana: Father Labat’s Voyage du P. Labat en Espagne and its Spanish Translation: A Comparative Analysis - Patricia Almarcegui: The Encounter between Lady Wortley Montagu and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres - José Juan Batista Rodríguez: Francis C. Mac-Gregor's The Canary Islands (1831): Notes on its Translation - Elena Baynat Monreal: Valencia and the Valencians According to Some 19th-Century French Travelers: Between Fiction and Reality - Manuel Bruña Cuevas: The City as a Pretext: Seville According to Antoine de Latour - Francisco Javier Castillo: On the Representation of Insular Reality: R. F. Burton and the Opening Chapters of Wanderings in West Africa - Belén Castro Morales: Alexander von Humboldt and Lost Peoples: Indigenous Peoples and Guanches in Perspective - Dolores Corbella: Rewritings of Travel: The Canary Islands in 17th- and 18th-Century French Anthologies and Collections - Clara Curell: John-Antoine Nau, Traveling Poet - Marta Fernández Bueno: Travel Literature and Interculturality: J. M. L. Lenz's Der neue Menoza and its Adoption by GDR Literature - M. Carme Figuerola: Fantastic Journeys: The Example of George Sand - Cristina G. de Uriarte: The Voyage of Borda, Pingré, and Verdun de la Crenne: Manuscripts of the Sainte-Geneviève Library - Isabel García Gálvez: The Voyage of the Young Anacharsis to Modern Greece According to Rigas Velestinlis - Juan-Manuel García Ramos: Parallel Journeys: La Mancha and Macondo - Marie-Christine Gomez-Géraud: Accounts of Pilgrims to the Holy Land in Counter-Reformation Times: Transformations of a Literary Genre - M.ª Isabel González Cruz / M.ª del Pilar González de la Rosa: The Linguistic Journey: A Sociolinguistic Approach to Travel Literature - Nicolás González Lemus: Medical Travel Literature and Tourism in the Canary Islands - Tomás Gonzalo Santos: French Rewritings of Venice - Santiago J. Henríquez Jiménez: Self-Absorbed Transit: The Unending Autobiography - Ignacio Iñarrea Las Heras: The Jacobean Pilgrimage in the French Nouvelle: Philippe de Vigneulles and Madame de Gomez. From Fiction to Reality - Michel Jangoux: En Route to the Southern Lands: Commander Baudin’s Ships Laying Over in Tenerife - Francisco Lafarga: On the Attitudes of Translators and Editors of Travel Accounts: Mme d'Aulnoy’s and Dumas’s Travel to Spain - Eduardo Martínez de Pisón: Travelers to the Mountains - Mayra Beatriz Martínez: "Natural" Women in José Martí’s Travel Writings on Central America - Marcos Martínez: A Philosophical Odyssey: J. J. Moutonnet de Clairfons’s Journey to the Fortunate Islands - Tomás Monterrey: Julian Barnes and the Rewriting of the Medusa Shipwreck, or Order in the Patterns of Chaos - José M. Oliver Frade: The Canary Islands in French-Language Poetic Writing - Concepción Palacios Bernal: The Travel Account at the Service of the Fantastic Tale: Dumas's Les Gentilshommes de la Sierra-Morena - Berta Pico: André Thevet and Thomas Nichols: Two Descriptions of the Canary Islands - Doina Popa-Liseanu: French Travels and Travelers in Texas: A Typology - Miguel Ángel Puig-Samper: Alexander von Humboldt’s Geography of Plants: The Construction of Scientific Knowledge and the Priority of Discovery - Anna Raventós Barangé: Baron de Bourgoing or the Passion for Objectivity - Sandra Rebok: Impressions of a German Traveler to the Canary Islands: Karl Wilhelm Georg von Fritsch (1862) - Leonardo Romero Tobar: Epistolarity in Travel Books - Dominique Samson Normand de Chambourg: Letters from Spain by V. Botkin and Letters from Russia by J. Valera (1857): On the Imponderables of Travel - Àngels Santa: Paul Nizan’s Aden-Arabie, an Initiatory Journey - Inmaculada Tamarit Vallés: The Spanish Woman, an Image Outlined in the Discourse of 18th-Century French Travelers - Jorge Juan Vega y Vega: Eugène Pégot-Ogier’s Triple Journey to the Canary Islands - Marc Zuili: César Oudin’s Journey to Spain and Portugal: Between Literary Reality and Fiction.
Travel literature constitutes a significant genre that has long served as a vessel for documenting human displacement and cultural encounter. The contributions in this volume explore issues related to the theme of travel, its written expression, and its meaning throughout history across different geographical and cultural areas, adopting an interdisciplinary perspective. The articles address questions concerning the generic and formal aspects of original texts or their translations, while also analyzing their adaptation, dissemination, and reception.
The essays gathered here address the formal and generic aspects of travel writing, considering how texts function as symbols, structures, or sources of inspiration. By adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the collection examines the reception and dissemination of these narratives, moving beyond the opposition between real and imaginary journeys. The studies cover a wide range of topics, from the linguistic nuances of travel accounts to the influence of travel on poetic and fantastic writing. Readers interested in the history of cross-cultural representation may find these diverse perspectives relevant to their research.