An Educational Pilgrimage to the United States. Un pèlerinage psycho-pédagogique aux États-Unis.: Travel Diary of Raymond Buyse, 1922. Carnet de voyage de Raymond Buyse, 1922.

II. The Narrative of the Journey

7 II. The Narrative of the Journey 1. Travelling to the United States at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Since the mid-nineteenth century, America has exercised an almost unceasing fascination on the European imagination. Successively fed by the mirages of Eldorado and technological civilisation, this fascination reached a peak after the First World War: it resonated with the best of the very pronounced modernist ambitions. At the same time, it caused concern, because the newly formed European society ran the risk of being labelled with the “stigmas of this devouring civilisation”.156 Attitudes towards the United States were therefore ambivalent during the inter-war period and this ambivalence is not less the source of curiosity that pushes European travellers to take themselves over the Atlantic. Among these figure prominently the great reporters sent by publishers of magazines and newspapers, who include everyday American topics in their columns. Other travellers, tourists, migrants, dilettantes, report their findings, analyses and impressions in essays, poems, stories or novels.157 To these two categories are attached, finally, the scholars, who undertook the trip to America in order to lear new techniques in all fields of knowledge. We find echoes of their travels in 156 G. Duhamel, Scènes de la vie future, Paris, Mercure de France, 1943, p. 17 (originally published in 1931). 157 See for example Céline, L.-F., Voyage au bout de la nuit, Paris, Denoël & Steele, 1932; B. Cendrars, Les Pâques à New York, in: Du monde entier, Paris, Gallimard, 1919; A. Maurois, Chantiers américains, Paris, Gallimard, 1993; P. Morand, New York, Paris, Flammarion, 1930; A. Siegfried, Impressions de voyage en Amérique : 1914, Le Havre, Randolet, 1915; A. Siegfried, États-Unis, Canada, Mexique : lettres de voyage écrites au Petit Havre, Le Havre, Le Journal, 1936; see also: M. Gresset, USA-retro : Notes sur quelques carnets de voyage aux États-Unis, 1923-1956, Cahiers Charles V. Recherches à L’Institut d’Anglais, n° 5 (1983) 171-188; M. Martin, Le voyage du grand reporter, de la fin du XIXe siècle aux années 1930, Le Temps des médias, VIII,1 (2007) 118-129. 8 scholarly articles, but also in documents of a more or less private nature, such as letters and travel diaries. Thus, the letters of French comparatist Jean-Marie Carré158 or of the sociologist Maurice Halbwachs:159 they are valuable records of the rhythm of daily living. All these narratives, which also includes that of Buyse, are indebted to the social and economic effects of an unprecedented demographic phenomenon: the mass immigration (80-90) which had transformed in a few decades a closed and primarily puritanical society. This immigration, essentially coming from non-Anglo-Saxon cultures, naturally created social and religious tensions, but also allowed contemporary observers to assess the suitability of the principles of tolerance inherited from the French revolution. Thus, issues of religion, of race, of prohibition constantly recur in the writings of travellers in America. They undoubtedly compose Buyse’s cultural references, explaining why he did not feel called upon to detail them in his narrative. At the time he wrote his diary, the journey across the Atlantic was no longer seen as a voyage of exploration; it now takes known routes, well-described by the guides of the time (Karl Baedeker, Jules Huret), by general geographic magazines such as Le Tour du monde (860-9), the Journal des voyages et des aventures de terre et de mer (877-99), À travers le monde (89-9), or magazines focused on America like France-Amérique (90-90) or France-États-Unis (99-9). Moreover, we do not know 158 D.-H. Pageaux, Un comparatiste à New York : les carnets inédits de Jean-Marie Carré (1922-1923), Revue de littérature comparée, CCCXIII,1 (2005) 75-84. 159 C. Topalov, Un savant voyage : les « Lettres des États-Unis » de Maurice Halbwachs au Progrès de Lyon (septembre -décembre 1930) », Genèses, n°s 58 & 59 (2005) 132-150 & 131-150. 9 what were the sources used by Buyse and Decroly during the preparation phase of travelling, what agency had taken charge of organising the trip and what maritime company had provided transport for the two travellers. We also lack information about the duration of the crossing, on the cost of the trip, on the dates of departure and return, etc. An archival work would...