1st Edition

French Political Travel Writing in the Interwar Years Radical Departures

336 Pages
by Routledge

336 Pages
by Routledge

336 Pages
by Routledge

This book studies travel writing produced by French authors between the two World Wars following visits to authoritarian regimes in Europe and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). It sheds new light on the phenomenon of French political travel in this period by considering the well-documented appeal of Soviet communism for French intellectuals alongside their interest in other... Read more

Contents



Introduction: Radical Departures and the Politics of Inter-war Travel Writing (Hurcombe, Kershaw and Cornick)



Chapter One: From the Grand Tour to the Political Tourist: Italy and the Encounter with Homo Fascista (Martin Hurcombe)



Chapter Two: Out of Chaos, Order: Latinity and the Iberian Dictatorships (Martin Hurcombe)



Chapter Three: The New Soviet Woman and the French Debate on Gender in the 1920s (Angela Kershaw)



Chapter Four: The Journey to the USSR in the 1930s: Apology, Apocrypha, Apostasy (Angela Kershaw)



Chapter Five: Towards Totalitarianism: French Travel Writing around the Nazi Seizure of Power (Martyn Cornick)



Chapter Six: Excursions and Alarums: the New Germany (Martyn Cornick)



Chapter Seven: Political Peregrinations, the Journey Home, and the Sense of Self: Functions of Political Travel Writing in Inter-war France (Kershaw, Hurcombe, Cornick)



Conclusion: Political Travel Writing and the Persistence of Utopian Thinking (Kershaw, Hurcombe, Cornick)



Bibliography

Biography

Martyn Cornick is Professor of French Cultural History at the University of Birmingham, UK.



Martin Hurcombe is a Reader in French Studies in the School of Modern Languages, University of Bristol, UK.



Angela Kershaw is a Senior Lecturer in French Studies in the Department of Modern Languages, University of Birmingham, UK.