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Descriptions du pays dans "Voyages aux isles de l’Amérique (1693-1705)" de R. P. Labat. Production d’un espace colonial
Kullberg, Christina
2012
Abstract
Focussing on descriptions of the land, this article examines the production
of space in "Les Voyages aux Isles de l’Amérique (1693-1705)" by J. B
Labat, a Dominican missionary. In Labat’s travel writing the narrated journey
offers a double construction of a colonial space and of the self as master
of the world. By privileging the traveling missionary’s direct experience
through various spatial representations and practices, Labat organizes
the Caribbean landscape according to a European model and domesticates
nature. However, whereas such spatial construction allows for the
self to emerge, it is based on the exclusion of the Other. In Labat’s travel
account the Caribbean is constructed as a utopian space for experimentation,
resembling a French garden where the colonial engineer-hero may
bloom.
Series
Prospero. Rivista di letterature e culture straniere
XVII (2012)
Publisher
EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste
Source
Christina Kullberg, "Descriptions du pays dans "Voyages aux isles de l’Amérique (1693-1705)" de R. P. Labat. Production d’un espace colonial", in: Prospero. Rivista di Letterature e Culture straniere, XVII (2012), pp. 71-89.
Languages
fr
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