Cestopisno-memoárová próza 18. storočia vo francúzštine: literárne črty Pamätí baróna Františka Tótha a ich miesto v súdobej literárnej tvorbe

Abstract

This article describes the place of the literary genre of travelogue memoirs in the context of French literature in the 18th century. It analyzes the creation of this genre which is marked by hybridity and bears the characteristic traits of an autobiography, travelogue and memoirs. The typical case of this literary genre is a travelogue and memorialistic prose Memoirs of Turks and Tartars, written by Baron Francis de Tott, the son of a Hungarian squire and soldier who was born in France but acquired a lingustic education in Istanbul in the famous school for interpreters. As an official of the French royal court, he participated in various diplomatic and commercial missions in the Ottoman Empire. Knowing the Turkish world very well, in his text he furnishes a brilliant insight into the moslim world, which was perceived as exotic by his European coevals. The main goal of this article is to show the narrativity of this literary genre and to examine the main literary practices or techniques applied by this author who wasn‘t, by his personal itinerary, the man who wields the pen, but rather the diplomat and son of a soldier, with a light touch of adventurer as the majority of memorialistic travelogue authors in the 18th century.