TY - BOOK
T1 - French Political Travel Writing in the Interwar years
T2 - Radical departures
AU - Cornick, Martyn
AU - Hurcombe, Martin
AU - Kershaw, Angela
PY - 2017/2/19
Y1 - 2017/2/19
N2 - This book is study of travel writing produced by French authors following visits to regimes perceived in inter-war France as totalitarian in nature. In addition to a discussion of journeys to Nazi Germany and the USSR, it offers an analysis of journeys to countries whose influence over French intellectuals and their political engagement has been neglected: Fascist Italy, Nationalist Spain, and Salazar’s Portugal. Through an analysis of the travel writing produced as a result of such visits, the book aims to gauge the appeal of these forms of totalitarianism for inter-war French intellectuals from a broad political spectrum. It aims to examine not only those whose political sympathies with the extreme right or extreme left were already publicly known, but also those usually non-aligned intellectuals who occupied the ‘centre ground’ and who were nevertheless drawn to political models that offered an apparently radical alternative to that of the Third Republic in France. The book is therefore concerned with the varied and enduring appeal of these totalitarian alternatives and seeks to establish to what extent the interest and, in some cases, fascination with such regimes reflects a utopian aspiration. Utopianism is understood not in the colloquial sense, as a fantasy ungrounded in the real but, in line with Karl Mannheim, Paul Ricœur, and Ruth Levitas, as a form of non-congruence with the real that it seeks to transcend. The book is less concerned with the political and historical accuracy of the portrayal of the regimes visited, preferring to consider this type of travel writing as an expression of an active socio-political imaginary that interacts with, and intends to impact upon, the real. It therefore also considers the role such journeys played in developing anti-democratic tendencies among key intellectual figures of the period and the consequences for France during the approach of the Second World War.
AB - This book is study of travel writing produced by French authors following visits to regimes perceived in inter-war France as totalitarian in nature. In addition to a discussion of journeys to Nazi Germany and the USSR, it offers an analysis of journeys to countries whose influence over French intellectuals and their political engagement has been neglected: Fascist Italy, Nationalist Spain, and Salazar’s Portugal. Through an analysis of the travel writing produced as a result of such visits, the book aims to gauge the appeal of these forms of totalitarianism for inter-war French intellectuals from a broad political spectrum. It aims to examine not only those whose political sympathies with the extreme right or extreme left were already publicly known, but also those usually non-aligned intellectuals who occupied the ‘centre ground’ and who were nevertheless drawn to political models that offered an apparently radical alternative to that of the Third Republic in France. The book is therefore concerned with the varied and enduring appeal of these totalitarian alternatives and seeks to establish to what extent the interest and, in some cases, fascination with such regimes reflects a utopian aspiration. Utopianism is understood not in the colloquial sense, as a fantasy ungrounded in the real but, in line with Karl Mannheim, Paul Ricœur, and Ruth Levitas, as a form of non-congruence with the real that it seeks to transcend. The book is less concerned with the political and historical accuracy of the portrayal of the regimes visited, preferring to consider this type of travel writing as an expression of an active socio-political imaginary that interacts with, and intends to impact upon, the real. It therefore also considers the role such journeys played in developing anti-democratic tendencies among key intellectual figures of the period and the consequences for France during the approach of the Second World War.
UR - https://www.routledge.com/French-Political-Travel-Writing-in-the-Interwar-Years-Radical-Departures/Cornick-Hurcombe-Kershaw/p/book/9780367867478
U2 - 10.4324/9780203782798
DO - 10.4324/9780203782798
M3 - Book
SN - 9780415858823
SN - 9780367867478
T3 - Routledge Research in Travel Writing
BT - French Political Travel Writing in the Interwar years
PB - Routledge
CY - New York and London
ER -