Documents found
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303.More information
Paul Bonnetain, a naturalist writer known for his many provocations and scandals, is entrusted with a mission to the Sudan in October 1892 by the Ministry of the Colonies and the Ministry of Education. Following a nine month trek through often hostile lands, accompanied by his wife and their daughter, he returns to the metropolis with many documents, fruits of his observations. Yet there remains no trace of the content of his official rapport, nor of a volume announced in the press. Only a few photographs surface. Could the reason be the ministerial censure that Bonnetain claimed to be victim of? The fact remains that, as though to evade an official proscription, a travel book is published under the name of Raymonde Bonnetain as well as a collection of short stories and prose poetry signed Paul Bonnetain. These very rich and complementary texts raise many questions, especially with regard to their status: literary work, simple testimony or genuine authentic document? It is these suggestions and their possible combinations, that this article intends to explore.
Keywords: Africa, Afrique, colonialism, colonialisme, travel writing, récit de voyage, realism/naturalism, réalisme/naturalisme, literary collaboration, collaboration litteraire.
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305.More information
Leonid Heller, Zamiatin : prophet or witness? Us and the realities of his time.The article studies the very close ties between E. Zamiatin's novel and his time. Us is inserted in the current of modernistic literature presenting a critical vision of society transformed by machinisation and Taylorism. This current goes from H. G. Wells to K. Capek passing through German expressionnists. Zamiatin attacks in particular the Proletkul't movement which dominates the cultural life in the post-revolutionary Russia. Whilst the style of the novel allows to classify it among vanguard works, it can also be considered as polemics against the construc-tivist artistic Utopias which developed in Russia towards 1920. On the other hand, the present article goes to show that many situations described in the novel are inspired directly by the political and social life within the structure of the Soviet state during the years 1918-1920.
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306.More information
Leonid Heller, A journey into the land of anarchy : the road of Utopia.In this essay, we deal with what we call the "anarchist component" of Russian modernism. At first, we discuss the fascination of a large number of prominent modernist artists, — Western and Russian as well — , for the issues that have been put forward by the anarchist thought. This fascination was favored in Russia by the secular domestic tradition. Then we show that the avant-garde of the 1910"s-1920's was initially attracted and made its contribution to the anarchist ideology and structures (such as press). The instances of Khlebnikov and Rodchenko illustrate this point. The second part of the essay outlines the Utopian and polemic writings of the notorious anarchist activists of the revolutionary era, the Gordin brothers. We point out the numerous relations that seem to exist between the Gordins' work and the modernist attitude toward the world, art, and politics. A brief comment on several other anarchist writers closes this attempt to delimitate our object of investigation for a future and more thorough treatment.
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