Spaced Out: Early Modern French Travel Literature

Sophie Linon-Chipon. Gallia Orientalis: Voyages aux Indes orientales, 1529-1722. Poétique et imaginaire d'un genre littéraire en formation

(Paris: l'Université Paris-Sorbonne, 2003). Pp. 692. €40. ISBN 2-84050-261-5

Louis-Antoine de Bougainville. Voyage autour du monde, ed. Michel Bideaux and Sonia Faessel

(Paris: l'Université Paris-Sorbonne, 2001). Pp. 503. €36. ISBN 2-84050-205-4. ¹

At present our planet is shrinking, but it was once fast expanding—when voyagers faced the vast unknown and unending horizons instead of firmly etched skylines. Although curiosity and the urge to possess have always prompted man to explore what lies beyond, the most awesome years of new unfoldings were arguably those of the great maritime expeditions of the early modern period, in which the "long" eighteenth century occupies prime space. The privileged position of science aboard vessels of exploration—along with its correlative complement of on-board scientists—marks a turning point of sorts in sea voyages. Not surprisingly, scientific goals acquire increasing importance during the Enlightenment period ( inter alia, they blend in well with empire building by promoting trade) and highlight its concerns. The two books under review offer ample illustrations of the above in differing ways. The first is broad in its scope, dwells on numerous lesser-known expeditions, and includes an impressive theoretical framework for travel literature. The other, quite to the contrary, is a case study targeting a single travel account. It is a richly documented critical edition, the very first, of a well-known work by the celebrated navigator Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, who proudly refers to himself as the first French captain of a French ship of the line to have sailed around the earth. What both works have in common, aside from the fact that they are included in the same publisher's series—"Imago Mundi"—is that they deal exclusively with actual voyagers' accounts and expeditions by French navigators on French vessels. While the former work's scope extends beyond the Enlightenment period, it constitutes not only background material, but also a valuable frame of reference for early modern travel literature. Last but not least, both of these works illustrate how overseas possessions, whether tiny islands or heftier expanses, were tossed about from one empire-builder to another, be it by way of armed conflict, tit-for-tat exchanges, or mere agreements of convenience. Before journeying through these books' contents, however, a few words on the organization that is a foundation for them—the Sorbonne-based Centre de Recherche sur la Littérature des Voyages (CRLV)—which deserves to be more fully explored and exploited in the New World.

The CRLV came into being in 1984 and plans to celebrate its twentieth anniversary with a conference to be held, not inappropriately, down under (Sydney, February 2005). Its two prime movers are François Moureau, the director, and Sophie Linon-Chipon, executive secretary. The former, a professor at the Sorbonne (Paris IV), leads a yearly seminar based on varying themes relating to travel accounts and/or literature of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, enriched with a host of guest lecturers. He is also the director of the "Imago Mundi" series, created in 2001 and at this time eight publications strong. The latter, in addition to her administrative duties and vast knowledge in the field, charts the routes of CRLV's electronic outreach programs. These include a fine-tuned Web site (http://www.crlv.org) providing a series of "forums" giving updates on relevant conferences, publications, seminars, recordings of lectures, as well as a list of CRLV's members, which is of directory proportions complete with photo. ²

Despite its specified time-frame, the lion's share of Linon-Chipon's...