Extreme Travel in Late Nineteenth-Century French Adventure Stories

Résumé 0

The mission of the Journal des voyages et des aventures de terre et de mer, the most popular adventure periodical of the fin-de-siècle, was twofold: publishing new adventure fiction and disseminating geographical knowledge. The Journal closely associated adventure fiction—its core content—with the activities of geographical societies. Through a complex dynamic between the Journal’s sensationalism and its supposed commitment to truth, alongside a pervasive confusion of adventure stories with accurate descriptions of real places, the Journal promoted an ideologically charged world view in which the French possessed the ability to rise to the top of the social hierarchies of societies that were labelled as primitive. The key theme of the Journal’s adventure fiction was continuous mobility, a theme that supported imperialism. In addition, an examination of a parody of adventure fiction by Albert Robida questions the Journal’s claims of realism and educational value.