La couleur anti-locale d'Eugène Fromentin

Abstract

The aim of this article is to demonstrate that the Algerian travelogues of Eugène Frometin (Un Été dans le Sahara, 1857 ; Une Année dans le Sahel, 1858), nowadays often regarded as a non-canonical author, form a part of a subversive tendency within mid-nineteenth century exotic French literature, alongside better-known authors such as Baudelaire or Flaubert. The Romantic use of "local color," often draws on a repertoire of stereotypical elements and commonplaces harbored by the collective imagery as regards the Other. Fromentin's abstract and figurative description of the desert can be perceived as a rejection of this use. Moreover his choice to focus on the indescribable and thus draw the attention away from the manifestations of French colonisation is significant because of its ideological implications. (In French VK)