CHATEAUBRIAND ET GAUTIER : ARPENTEURS DE KAMCHATKA OU LARBINS DESCRIPTIFS?

Abstract

If Theophile Gautier had doubts about his work and was afraid of being considered as a “descriptive stooge” by posterity, it is because he was aware that, among the “great geniuses” who were “frightfully swarming” during his time, all of them wouldn’t survive as surveyors of “Kamchatka” such as Chateaubriand or Baudelaire. On the one hand, as a poet, Gautier didn’t have the fame of Hugo or Musset during his time, or as a novelist, the fame of Balzac or Sand. On the other hand, his creation of ballets and his articles on his travels made him famous. However, literary critics have paid only attention to his poetry and his novels. They have neglected his articles on his trips, and in particular The Journey in Russia, although this journey may have been one of the most important works according to him, and judging from its length and quality. Thanks to examples taken from The Journey in Russia never explored before, the current paper shows the influence on Gautier exerted by Chateaubriand, creator of the “literary journey” and surveyor himself of the other side of the Kamchatka: America.