Travellers' Visions: French Literary Encounters with Japan, 1881-2004Travellers' Visions adds another perspective to ongoing debates over colonialism with an examination of the intercultural relations between France, a major colonial empire for nearly three centuries, and Japan, a country that has remained mostly autonomous throughout its existence. In this analytic history of French literary images of Japan, from soon after its reopening to the West to the present day, Kawakami examines the work of many of France's most revered authors including Marcel Proust, Paul Claudel, and Roland Barthes, along with other, lesser-known writers and artists, such as Loti and Farrère, as they embarked on journeys—literary and real—to this "exotic" land. Authors are discussed according to type— journalists, diplomats, or collectors, for example—and the close readings are accompanied by Gérard Macé's beautiful and rarely seen photographs. Travellers' Visions offers new clarity to current intellectual debates and will be a valuable resource to students and scholars of French literature and Asian history alike. |
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aesthetic Albertine autres barbare au Japon Barthes Bataille bien bunraku Butor c'est Cent Phrases century chapter China Chinese chinois Choses rapportées civilisation Claude Farrère collection collector colonisation Connaissance de l'Est context d'une described drame de l'Asie Edmond de Goncourt encounter European exotic exoticism fait Farrère's Felze France French gardens Gérard Macé haiku Henri Michaux image of Japan instance j'ai Japan Japanese art japonais japonaiserie Japoneries japonisme jardin jaune kimono knowledge Kyoto L'Empire des signes L'Oiseau noir l'Orient Loti Loti's Macé's Madame Chrysanthème mémoire Michaux Michel Butor Monde qui ressemble Muraille intérieure Nagasaki narrative narrator nature nostalgia novel Paris Paul Claudel petit photographs Phrases pour éventails poems poet Promeneur Proust qu'il qu'on rapportées du Japon reader recognisable reference relationship ressemble au monde rien Roland Barthes Russo-Japanese War Samuel Bing soleil levant stereotype Tokyo tout translated vision of Japan walker walking Western Yellow Peril