1 Travelling Against Time: Flemish Authors Travelling to Italy in the Interwar Period

Tom M.J. Sintobin* Department of Cultural Studies, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

According to The World Organization available for Belgian visitors. What is more, it was (World Bank Group, n.d.a), the number of only after 1927 that the Belgians got their own tourist arrivals worldwide was over one billion category in these statistics; before that, they were in 2015, three times more than in 1995. The included in the same category with the Dutch, Yearbook of Tourism Statistics shows a steady rise, Danish and Scandinavians. Syrjämaa (1997) cal- with only two interruptions: minor dips between culated that in 1927 16,000 Belgians travelled to 2002 and 2003 and between 2008 and 2009. Italy. That number remained the same in 1928, It is tempting to link the dips to events that had grew to 25,000 in 1929, then dropped to 13,956 a massive global impact: the terror attacks from in 1930, presumably because of the financial autumn 2001 and the start of the economic crisis. 1931 and 1932 – the last years for which crisis with the collapse of Lehman Brothers in she tried to provide numbers – showed a rapid September 2008. Although this explanation is increase despite the global economic crisis, with all too easy1, it is striking that the effect of those respectively 39,987 and 36,769 Belgian visitors events seems very limited: a drop in tourist ar- (Syrjämaa, 1997, p. 393). Professor in economics rivals of about 1.3% and 4.2% respectively. The Fernand Baudhuin claims in 1931 that ‘le Belge conclusion might be that the tourist industry is voyage peu hors de chez lui; l’une des raisons not much affected by external events on a global doit être trouvée dans les prix plus élevés ailleurs’ scale, no matter how devastating their nature. (Baudhuin, 1931, p. 196), but does not come up But do they affect the tourist discourse? How do with exact numbers. According to Yves Segers, tourist narratives respond to such realities? The Belgians spent 200 million BEF abroad in 1929, question is evidently too broad for one chapter, 125 million in 1935 and 150 million in 1936 – so I will concentrate on one specific historical with Italy and Lourdes as popular destinations case study: Flemish travellers to Italy in the in- (Segers, 2003, p. 219). terwar period. Although we will never know exact num- It is impossible to say how many people from bers, we can derive from different phenomena the Flemish-speaking part of visited that Italy was clearly in the picture as a Italy in those days: there are only statistical data destination for Flemish travellers in those days.

*​t.​sintobin@​let.​ru.​nl © CAB International 2019. Literary Tourism: Theories, Practice and Case Studies (eds I. Jenkins and K.A. Lund) 3 4 T.M.J. Sintobin

In 1922 a journal for tourists was started under groeien (Timmermans, 1926) the name De Toerist (the name was changed to 4. H. Haeck, De bedevaart van Toon Verheyen Toerisme in 1926) by the Vlaamschen toeristen- (Haeck, 1928) bond, an organization that was also established 5. E. Van Hemeldonck & Fr. Ramon, Van Toontje in 1922 and had over 100,000 (mostly middle die naar Rome ging (Van Hemeldonck and class) members within a decade (Raymaekers, Ramon, 1927) 2012). Italy featured quite often in its contents. 6. M. van Hoeck, Schoonheidsvizoenen. There was a lot of practical information on Reisindrukken uit Italië (Van Hoeck, 1928) travel schemes, the prices of the visa2, , 7. Alfons Lambrecht, Naar de Gondelstad new rules and regulations for foreign visitors, (Lambrecht, 1928) available guidebooks. They announced lectures, 8. Gab. Celis, Door het kunstrijk Italië (Celis, slideshows and movies3, they reported on new 1929) traffic infrastructre and they applauded the es- 9. Gab. Celis, Naar Rome: reisindrukken (Celis, tablishment of the ‘Touring Club Italo-Tedesco, 1928) Deutsch-Italienischer Touristenverband’. 10. Jozef Simons, In Italië (Simons, 1930) Furthermore, they published travelogues. 11. M.E. Belpaire, Reukwerk (Belpaire, 1932) Already in the very first year there was a series 12. Louisa Duykers, Aquarellen uit Italïe of texts by G. Celis, a priest who reported ex- (Duykers, 1933) tensively on his journey to Italy in April 1914, 13. Hilarion Thans, Vertellen: Derde Deel (Thans, and similar texts were published in the course 1937) of subsequent years.4 They also published re- 14. Cyriel Verschaeve; Italië. Studies over kunst views of travelogues. One example is the review (Verschaeve, 1938) of Een klassieke reis in het ‘Schoone Italië’ by Claes 15. Hilarion Thans, Door oud en nieuw Italië (1925); the reviewer calls it a ‘practical’ book, (Thans, 1938) a must-have ‘for those who travel as tourists to 16. Hilarion Thans, Langs heilige bergen. Italy’.5 Vertellen: 4 (Thans, 1941) In this chapter, I will focus on literary ac- counts of journeys to Italy, published as books, This means an average of one travelogue a year: by Flemish authors who visited fascist Italy in there clearly was a market for these books. I was the interwar period. How do their travelogues unable to find information on readers, but in one relate to a long tradition of cultural depictions of of the books I consulted I found the following the country and to the political reality of those handwritten text: ‘ of my trip to Rome days? in the Holy Year 1925’ – which means that trav- ellers were buying them. Since paid holidays for ordinary working people were only established Description of the Database and in 1936 in Belgium, it seems logical that many Political Context people reading these travelogues did so as ‘arm- chair tourists’, without being able to go to Italy themselves. It proved to be very difficult to trace the exact Some of these books were (modified) re- number of travelogues, but by systematically prints. Een klassieke reis in het ‘Schoone Italië’ analysing Boekengids – a bibliographical maga- (Claes, 1925) by Ernest Claes was first pub- zine that started in 1921 – I was able to iden- lished in 1908 under the title Het schooner tify 16 travelogues entirely dedicated to a trip to Italië. Reisvertelling (1908). Aquarellen uit Italïe Italy and published as books between 1925 and (Duykers, 1933) by Louisa Duykers featured in 1941. They were written by 13 different Flemish 1911 in the literary magazine Dietsche Warande authors: & Belfort. A part of Timmermans’s text featured 1. Jozef Deswert, Naar Rome! ‘Anno Santo’ as a series in De Maasbode and Nieuwe Venlosche (Deswert, 1925) Courant in the summer of 1925 and Celis pub- 2. Ernest Claes, Een klassieke reis in het ‘Schoone lished earlier in De Toerist. Apart from Felix Italië’ (Claes, 1925) Timmermans, who published his travelogue 3. Felix Timmermans, Naar waar de appelsienen with his usual Dutch publishing house, all the Travelling Against Time 5

publishing houses are Flemish and Catholic. murdered by members of the Ceka, who possi- Almost half of the authors were priests (Thans; bly received their orders directly from Mussolini Verschaeve; Celis; Van Hoeck; Haeck; Deswert), (Carocci, 1975, p. 32). In his ‘Discorso sul delitto the others were non-clerical but moving, work- Matteotti’ on 3 January 1925 in the House of ing and publishing in Catholic circles. Among Representatives, Mussolini claimed personal re- them, there were two women, Duyckers and sponsibility for inciting the violence in the coun- Belpaire, both connected to the literary maga- try and declared himself dictator, arguing that zine Dietsche Warande & Belfort as authors, and Italy needed stability at all costs. The murder, the in the case of the latter, also as mentor and fi- investigation and the trial, as well as Mussolini’s nancer. I was unable to find any travel books speech, were widely covered in newspapers all to Italy by authors from the other ‘pillars’ (the over the world, and the Low Countries were no term to describe the political and organizational exception. The assassination also meant the start segregation of societies along ideological lines), of a very turbulent and internationally media- socialist nor liberal, from the interwar period. tized relationship between the Belgian minister Evidently, for Catholics Italy was the coun- of foreign affairs from 1925 to 1927, the social- try to visit, since it had already been the seat of ist Emile Vandervelde, and il Duce. On 16 October the Church for centuries and was the most im- 1925, Vandervelde refused to meet Mussolini portant site of the . One of the first in person at the conference of Locarno. The reports of a Grand Tour, The Voyage of Italy, or, A next year, he was the only minister of foreign Complete Journey through Italy, was written by the affairs not to congratulate Mussolini after he Roman Catholic priest Richard Lassels (1670). survived an assault on 7 April (he only lost the In his ‘A preface to the reader’ he tries to counter tip his nose). In October 1926, Vandervelde gave those who say that he ‘hunt[s] too much after a speech at the occasion of a commemorative Ceremonies, and Church antiquities’ by saying plaque in honour of Matteotti in Brussels. The that ‘I cannot speak of Rome the Christian, but I socialist newspaper Vooruit published the follow- must speak of Relicks, Ceremonies and Religion’ ing quote: ‘I will not refer to the circumstances and by stressing that he paid a lot of attention of the crime. I will not look for the responsibili- to ‘prophane’ subjects as well. A steady stream ties. I want to register one thing: in present-day of travelogues about a pilgrimage to Rome had Europe one is allowed to kill a man, on condi- found its way to European readers for centu- tion that that man is a socialist, a revolutionary’ ries. In the early days of the Belgian nation (Vooruit, 1926). And in May 1927 Vandervelde state (founded in 1830), for instance, the priest did not show up to greet disabled Italian sol- P. Visschers published several books on his jour- diers during their visit to Belgium. Mussolini ney to Italy.6 By the interwar period in Belgium, felt insulted, ordered his ambassador to ask a tourist industry had already started to develop for apologies and eventually withdrew him to around the idea of going on to Italy. In De Toerist Italy – demanding the Belgian government fire and Toerisme we find various invitations for Vandervelde. On 31 May, two Catholic repre- guided tours to Italy.7 Interestingly, several of the sentatives, Sinzot and Mernier, interpellated travelogues I found describe a guided journey – Vandervelde in the House of Representatives. He often explicitly named a ‘pilgrimage’– in which managed to counter their attack very effectively, the group is accompanied by the parish priest. but the session ended in a riot when a commu- All this helps to explain why the travelogues I nist and a socialist representative started to yell found were Catholic. anti-fascist slogans. It was not before the end of The political context evidently played a December 1927 that Mussolini sent a new am- role as well. Fascists took over power on the 28 bassador to Belgium, 3 weeks after the socialists October 1922. The movement strongly opposed had left the government for a different reason. democratic socialism and liberalism but took An analysis of the way the media from the care to keep close ties with the Roman Catholic different pillars covered these events shows how Church. This gave Italy a negative image in lib- deeply politically divided the Low Countries were eral and socialist circles, which became even in those days. Whereas socialist newspapers worse when on 10 June 1924, the socialist applauded Vandervelde’s actions against what leader of the opposition Giacomo Matteotti was they called ‘the chief of the fascist government 6 T.M.J. Sintobin

of murderers’ (HVa, 1925), Catholic media and convinced that his adventurous attitude showed politicians kept their distance. It is not difficult to him the authentic Rome: ‘If you want to enjoy understand their attitude. From the very begin- the real “life of the common people”, then take ning, Mussolini had strived to get support from a walk along the Tiber, when the sun is setting’ the Vatican, for instance by saving the Banco di (Celis, 1928, p. 56). These claims by various Roma (and the Vatican fortune) and by solving narrators to be superior to ordinary tourists are, the so-called ‘Roman Question’ with the Lateran however, contradicted by the very stereotypical Treaty (1929), in which the Vatican was recog- nature of their travelogues. They all look very nized as an independent city state and was com- similar; the genre clearly is very strictly coded in pensated for the loss of the Papal States since many ways. 1870 (Carocci, 1975, pp. 29–30). It is obvious First, it is striking that travellers in these that the international community had not yet a books all have their reasons for their journey. reached a consensus on how to judge Mussolini Time and time again it is stressed that they do and his regime. One journalist summarized the not travel for leisure – ‘idleness is the devil’s situation on 7 January 1925: ‘Depending on pillow’ – but because they want to learn or for one’s point of view, one will judge Mussolini’s religious reasons. Timmermans’s I-narrator deeds very differently’ (HVb, 1925). Important yearns for that country ‘with its art and light, differences, so he argued, had to do with ideo- its landscapes, its history and its miraculous re- logical background and nationality. The French ligion’. Modern times are chaotic, he claims, but tended to condemn Mussolini’s aspirations in Italy will ‘purify the mind’ (Timmermans, 1926, Morocco because they perceived him as a threat pp. 5–6). To Belpaire, a trip to Italy is for all hu- to their own interests, whereas the English mankind like coming home ‘in a second father- praised him because they welcomed a strong land, the fatherland of the souls’ (1932, p. 185). counterbalance to the French presence in the Claes calls a trip to Italy in his preface ‘a bright spot Mediterranean. in a man’s life and a blessing for the development of the mind of idealistic youth’ (Claes, 1925, p. 2). Some characters want to pay tribute to the Motives and Stereotypes Pope and to congratulate him with the fact that Mussolini has rehabilitated him (Haeck, 1928) or to confess (Simons, 1930). Others stress that Tourists loathe other tourists. As Paul Fussell theirs is a trip to beauty and art (Verschaeve, claims in his book Abroad. British Literary 1938; Van Hoeck, 1928). As becomes clear from Traveling Between the Wars: ‘From the outset these motivations, all these have a simi- mass tourism attracted the class-contempt of lar structure: from darkness to light, from sin to killjoys who conceived themselves independent absolution, from ignorance, doubt and chaos to travelers and thus superior by reason of intel- knowledge, insight and beauty. The opening of lect, education, curiosity, and spirit’ (Fussell, Van Hoeck’s Schoonheidsvizioenen is telling in this 1980, p. 40). Even today, these stereotypes respect: are prominent in tourist discourse (Butcher, 2003). Many of the characters in my database ‘Kennst du das Land’: this sunny melody threw are no different. Time and time again, they look open her colourful sides when, on that cold, down on ‘tourists’ who stick to the beaten track cheerless September-afternoon, the train from (Sintobin, 2013b). They claim to do things dif- Brussels whistled away to the land where visions ferently. Hilarion Thans, for example, claims of beauty would open up in the brightest light that he visits ‘places outside the tourist industry’ of a gurgling sun, under the purest blue of a deep sky. At a raging speed through Brabant (Thans, 1938, p. 11) and that he behaves in a and Namen, into Luxemburg. The grey evening very different way from tourists, who follow ‘for had fallen, distant chimneys spit out a dirty fog ever the same course […] in a minimal stretch of over the slanting land. Lightningtrains flashed time’, do not venture off the beaten track and past. Rainspears, hard as steel, stabbed the consequently do not get in touch with ‘the soul windows. […] It has become dark. Every now of things […] the psychology of a nation’ (pp. and again, in an irascible run through a railway 9–10). Another example is Celis, who is firmly hall, where the weak lanterns light up for just Travelling Against Time 7

a brief moment. We speed through the Elzas, Lassels’s (1670) book that is exactly the role as- past Thionville, glowing fantastically against cribed to the country in the usual narrative of the black sky, with its tremendous industry the Grand Tour. The fact that Rome is seen as the that refuses to dim: a ginger glow smokes from climax of the trip does not come as a surprise the sombre factories, spectres project appalling either, since ‘eternal Rome’ (Urbs Aeterna – one arabesques on the walls. (Van Hoeck, 1928, p. 9) of Rome’s best-known epitheta ornantia since Clearly this journey starts in a dark environ- Antiquity) is the final goal of any Christian pil- ment, where it is cold and uncomfortable, ugly grim. Predictably, Flemish travelogues think of and polluted. It is hostile (the rain is compared Rome and even Italy as a whole as a place unaf- to stabbing spears) and characterized by the fected by time: it is eternal, immortal, universal. mechanical and unhuman (‘lanterns’; ‘train’; ‘No city more deserves the name: the Eternal ‘industry’) and speed. The closer the narrator city’, claims Belpaire (1932, p. 192). Van Hoeck gets to Italy, the more natural, beautiful and states that the churches he sees were built ‘not lighter the environment gets. Eventually, he re- for a dying race, but for eternity’ (1928, p. 18). turns home with plenty of good memories of Characters feel as if they are placed outside time. ‘visions of beauty’. Something very similar hap- ‘We don’t get older anymore,’ says Gommer, full pens in Door oud en nieuw Italië: as long as the of admiration, ‘we are being stabilized, just like narrator is still on his way (he travels via Airolo the Belgian franc!’ (Simons, 1930, p. 41). And in Switzerland) he gets the feeling of being in a one of Haeck’s characters suddenly realizes: pre-worldly chaos or Deluge: ‘Waterfalls jump ‘here, the Middle Ages are still going strong […] and foam. The Tessino bolts, pallid brown, with Here, all centuries are one, like a harmonica of waves like furious hordes of lions’ (Thans, 1938, eternity’ (Haeck, 1928, pp. 33–34) – ‘Centuries p. 15). As soon as he has reached Italy, the chaos ceased to exist, the ancient Romans rose from disappears and he describes a group of extraor- their graves and kneeled next to a simple farmer dinarily beautiful 7-year-old children who are from Zaveldonck’ (pp. 44–45). All this is possible singing while walking (pp. 15–16). Several au- because of Rome’s ‘religion, unlimited by lan- thors use the tunnels through the Alps to create guage nor time’ (p. 133) – a clear reference to this effect: ‘Suddenly we speed out of the deep- Rome as Caput Mundi: it is not an Italian, but a est night into the brightest light. The travellers global city: the perfect melting pot. cheer in choir […] We are in beautiful Italy’ In the following paragraph, I will look in (Claes, 1925, p. 12). more detail at the representation of one specific It is not difficult to recognize the structure of city that many of the Flemish travellers visited: a very ancient type of travelling here: that of the Venice. Rosemary Sweet has analysed the repre- pilgrimage. Nelson Graburn – and many in his sentation of this city in travelogues by (mainly) stead – have argued that the structure of the pil- British Grand Tourists between 1690 and 1820. grimage – a ‘sacred journey from home to away, For the 18th-century traveller, she writes, ‘the followed by a return to home’ (Bruner, 2005, p. appeal and interest of Venice had resided in its 13) underlies any tourist experience. The Grand singularity’ in different realms (Sweet, 2012, Tour fits this pattern as well: as a rite of passage, p. 234). It was the ‘città galante’ (p. 202), marked it aimed at transforming boys into adults with by luxury, eroticism, carnival, that to some enough savoir vivre and education to assume felt like ‘enchanted ground’ (Sweet, 2012, p. their role in society. The Flemish travellers follow 214). In the 19th century, representations of the trajectory of the Grand Tour; Rome, Venice, the city were characterized more and more by Florence, Naples: they constitute the standard ‘nostalgic regret or a sense of romance or mys- route of 18th-century Grand Tourists (Burke, tery’ – as ‘a city in ruins where the imagination 2005). It seems safe to conclude that Flemish could have free play’ (Sweet, 2012, p. 234). interwar travel(ogue)s were modelling after both Literary representations, such as Shakespeare’s these phenomena. The way specific sites are de- Merchant of Venice and, later on, Byron’s Childe scribed equally reminds of stereotypes common Harold’s Pilgrimage, functioned as important in these old ways of travelling. Of course, Italy lenses through which the city was interpret- is the land of art where one goes to receive an ed. It is not difficult to demonstrate that the artistic (and religious) education: already in Flemish travelogues show similarities to both 8 T.M.J. Sintobin

18th- and 19th-century representations of Some intertexts are only mentioned in one Venice. Verschaeve writes that the city is dying travelogue. An example is to be found in Van in beauty and calls her ‘la città del amore e della Hoeck, who praises ‘Mgr. Keppler’ for his de- morte. Venice, city of love and death!’ (1938, pp. scription of the façade of the San Marco (Van 86–87). Claes talks about ‘a magic wand that Hoeck, 1928, p. 17). No doubt, he means Paul touched all the towers’ and ‘a sad song, a song of Wilhelm von Keppler (1852–1926), bishop of past glory’ (Claes, 1925, p. 77). In the evening, Rottenburg; Van Hoeck translated some of his he stands in front of the open window, dreaming work into Dutch in 1918. One of Keppler’s sub- about Venice’s glorious past, full of ‘pennons and titles is Venezia, die Einzige, which corresponds to flags, glittering torches, figures in velvet and silk, Van Hoeck’s description of the city as ‘de éénige’ – war fanfares and sweet music from the depths of ‘the singular one’ (1928, p. 16). This shows how the marvellously illuminated palaces, masked a very old characterization of Venice as ‘singu- hangmen, Othellos and Shylocks […] Light and lar’, ‘unique and extraordinary’ (Sweet, 2012, shadow, happiness and sorrow, wealth and pov- p. 199) reaches a Flemish travelogue through a erty, fame and decay, victory and defeat!’ (p. 78). German mediator. Van Hoeck calls it ‘the city of Magic; the queen Most intertexts, however, pop up in sev- of the seas, the mysterious riddle, the proud ruin eral books. Extremely frequent is a reference to enshrined in the trembling haze of past centu- Goethe. The German author stayed in Italy from ries; a fairytale in the thousand coloured light September 1786 until April 1788 and described of the day; a miracle in the sultry nights’ (Van his ‘Grand Tour’ in works such as Italienische Hoeck, 1928, p. 16). Reise, Venetianische Epigramme and the song Timmermans has his narrator claim that ‘Mignon (Kennst Du das Land)’ from Wilhelm Venice does ‘nothing but be beautiful and fade Meisters Lehrjahre (1795–1796). The majority away’ (Timmermans, 1926, p. 38) and when of the Flemish travelogues refer to the first line he smokes in front of his open window and ob- of that poem, ‘Kennst du das Land, wo die Zitronen serves the Santa Maria della Salute, he does not blühn,/Im dunkeln Laub die Gold-Orangen glühn’. just see a basilica but ‘a sphynx with locks’, ‘a Timmermans uses it for his title – Naar waar de woman, shaking her hair from back and forth. appelsienen groeien or To where the oranges grow; Young and delicious’ (Timmermans, 1926, pp. Van Hoeck begins his book with it; Claes and 28–29). As can be derived from these exam- Simons have their narrators quote Goethe after ples, the terminology most frequently used to passing through the tunnel. Claes writes: describe the city has to do with dream, fairy tale, We are in beautiful Italy – ‘Das land wo die secret, seduction, fatal beauty and past glory. citrônen blühn!’ We are in the land of the fine Van Hoeck is a priest and Timmermans a mar- arts; in the land of flowers and sun; in the land ried man, travelling with his wife – but they nev- of blue skies and blue waves, in the land of the ertheless interpret the city in erotic terms: their most delicious scenes of nature and the most tourist gaze is modelled after an ancient tradi- royal works of art. We are in God’s favourite tion of viewing Venice. land!! […] We are happy to be in Italy. Everything smiles at us. The green shines lighter and the sun happier, sunnier I might say. (Claes, 1925, p. 12) Explicit Sources The entire description brings to mind Goethe’s poem: Italy is a blissful country of art, na- I am not claiming that there is a direct intertex- ture and beauty, where people can love and be tual link between my travelogues and the British together. travelogues Sweet discussed. I do think they both Another often mentioned intertext is are informed by and (re)produce a similar stere- ‘Baedeker’: the well-known travel guidebook otyping discourse, the origins of which are hard series that Karl Baedeker started publishing in to trace, that has haunted the public imagina- 1827. In the 1860s three parts on Italy came tion for centuries. Nevertheless, there are many out, in several languages. The seventh edition was instances in which the texts themselves explic- published in 1926, in Leipzig: Italien, von den Alpen itly mention their intertexts. bis Neapel: kurzes Reisehandbuch (Baedeker, 1926). Travelling Against Time 9

Many characters in my database own a Baedeker and dogged as the Baedeker, which mainly enu- and systematically disagree with their guidebook. merates facts and data about a certain site. They Simons’s narrator, for instance, says that he does use different strategies to avoid this effect. First, not believe ‘our Baedeker’ when he claims that the they do not strive to mention everything, but façade of St Peters is ‘145 meters long and 46 me- single out spectacular moments or aspects of the tres high’ (Simons, 1930, p. 54). Thans has read site (and sometimes refer to Baedeker ‘for more in his Baedeker that a walk to the top of Subasio figures’ (Simons, 1930, p. 56)). Second, they mountain takes 3 hours, but is privileged to have make sure to alternate facts with funny or cruel a local friend who knows ‘shorter tracks’ (Thans, anecdotes. A good example is the descriptions 1938, p. 161). And when Duykers meets German of the Catacombs and the Colosseum, in which tourists, ‘Baedeker in their hands, hurriedly’, she special attention is paid to the various ways early explicitly claims that they miss what really mat- Christians were tortured and killed. Third, they ters (Duykers, 1933, p. 11). This critical attitude make use of very specific scenes to ‘neutralize’ can thus be linked to the clear tendency in these the well-documented (Adam, 1993) negative narrators to distinguish themselves from ‘normal impact of too much purely descriptive informa- tourists’ who just take at face value whatever they tion on readers. They introduce a character (for are told. instance, a local friend, a ) who guides The tension between providing the reader the narrator and provides him with information with factual information and keeping the story on site. The result is a dynamic scene, a so-called attractive is present in my entire database. On Homeric description, in which the descriptive the one hand the travelogues clearly want to in- passage does not stop the time of the narration, form the reader to help him plan his own journey but is performed by stereotypical couples, in and thus resemble guidebooks. In his prologue, this case ‘le guide, le touriste’ (Hamon, 1993, p. Claes explicitly names as one of his aims to write 185). Such a scene can be very elaborate. When ‘a short manual of the journey he undertook Haeck’s characters visit St Peter’s Basilica, ‘the and a […] loyal travelling companion through- professor’ – their guide – asks them to guess how out Italy’ (Claes, 1925, p. 2). Occasionally, the high the pillars are: ‘The Dutchman estimated authors make use of the imperative style so 15 metres, the sacristan said “let’s say: ten” and typical for tourist discourse: ‘To get there [to the the teacher thought there would be twelve. The Catacombs], go to the Porta S. Sebastiana, where professor looked them in the face one by one the ‘Via Appia’ begins’ (Celis, 1928, p. 41). The and then said: “It is thirty metres high!” “Oh my reader gets travel suggestions just like he would gosh,” Toon yelled, “They can put the church get from a guidebook: ‘I suggest you go there in of Zaveldonk [his village; TS] underneath it!”’ the morning, since so many travellers arrive by (Haeck, 1928, p. 32) Other narrators have their car in the afternoon that it becomes impossible characters measuring distances in steps. to ‘intimately’ feel something or pay attention to Timmermans’s narrator often does not the touching past’ (Celis, 1928, p. 43). Names of care about exact numbers: ‘hundreds of me- attractions are more often than not put in italics, tres’ (Timmermans, 1926, pp. 25–27). His text bold or capitals (sometimes all at once) – just like therefore does not merely offer a description of in a Baedeker in those days. Several books are a site, but the testimony of the way this nar- richly illustrated, with predictable pictures of rator personally experiences the site. This is a the famous sites. By showing off all this knowl- common strategy in my database: the narrators edge, the narrators profile themselves as intel- express their feelings and in doing so they both lectuals, well read and well documented. personalize their tourist experience and suggest However, they also try to emulate the to the reader an appropriate code of behaviour Baedeker by enhancing the literary quality of and interpretation for a given site. Timmermans their text. First, the often very poetical language even has his narrator touch a painting by Fra used – figures of speech are abundant, as is a Angelico, The Deposition from the Cross, and then very marked terminology – obviously aims at triumphantly claim: ‘I dipped my finger in heav- turning the travelogues into things of beauty. en’ (pp. 49–50). Timmermans’s alter ego closely Second, it is striking how many tricks the nar- resembles the main character of his best-known rators use to avoid their texts becoming as dry novel, Pallieter, but is not unique in my database. 10 T.M.J. Sintobin

Several of the travelogues have a similar rather of the foundation of Rome (‘Fifty thousand men foolish character, whose humorous and un- gathered there to listen to the head of the gov- conventional behaviour counters the serious- ernment’ (Celis, 1928, p. 54)), and so on: the ness of the erudite guides that take care of the narrator sticks to description. The only vague more informative passages (for example, Toon hint of criticism is his description of ‘the new Verhoeven, who continuously interrupts the museum, Mussolini’s Museum’ (p. 56), which ‘professor’ in Haeck (1928), ‘our fat companion’ is followed by the following, ominous passage: in Celis (1928) and Gommer in Simons (Simons, ‘A proverb says: “the Tarpeian Rock is close to 1930)). All these techniques aim at securing the the Capitol” to prove that those who are praised readability and literariness of the travelogue. and famous today can fall in disgrace tomorrow’ (p. 56). The first thing Haeck’s characters see on their arrival is soldiers: ‘Toon yelled in four direc- Blind In the Land of Light? tions: “Soldiers of Mussolini” and then winked at a fascist’. The soldier smiles back at him ‘in As I hope to have shown, Italy is depicted in a Italian’ (Haeck, 1928, p. 15). These soldiers very stereotypical way as the land where light, clearly do not pose a threat. On the contrary, art and religion are omnipresent and, especially they have a clear and appreciated function: in the case of Rome, eternal. The travelogues ‘I like what I see: at least there is order here’ thus stand in the same discursive tradition as, (p. 15). Their amiability is stressed several times for instance, reports by Grand Tourists. Changes in the text. While the soldiers march, ‘they to such an eternal country will never be more played the mandolin on the grip of the gun’ (p. than ripples on the surface; the essence remains 125). When the main character gets lost, ‘a fas- unchanged. In what follows, I want to look at cist’ shows him the way (p. 100). In fact, every- the role contemporary history and discourse one in the novel is friendly: the police, the people, play in my database. How do they represent the fellow tourists. Humanity is good: ‘the Flemish, contested figure of Mussolini and his politics? Germans and Swiss nuns’ - people from three Mussolini is rarely mentioned in the ma- parts of the world, with the same religion (p. 23), jority of the travelogues I studied, if at all. Van praying an international rosary (p. 30). Even Hoeck, for instance, seems to be fond of descrip- the Germans are friends – despite the war: ‘And tions of war and violence in the past; he does not even if you were German, Sister’, Toon says to a mention the political reality of his days once. In nurse, ‘I wouldn’t have minded … because here Timmermans there is one reference, at the end in Rome everyone is cosmopolitan ... I wanted to of the text, when he is in Genoa: ‘On almost all say: Brothers. Brothers and sisters, Sister, that the houses, as in so many other cities, one can is what we are in Rome’ (pp. 20–21) – a clear find painted traces of the passionate elections. reference to Rome as Caput Mundi. Mussolini is “Vote por Mussolini,” “Vote por Manzanin,” with not problematic because he respects the right various slogans and signs such as the Fascist axe religion. The problem is Buddhists, Brahmans and other things’ (Timmermans, 1926, p. 139). and Islam, but they will see ‘clearly that their Three dots, that is all the reader gets. This vio- national pantheon will have to make way for us, lent regime does not fit his stereotypical image and heads will roll until we are the boss.’ (p. 59) of Italy, with the passion of the elections as the Thans refers to Mussolini and his politics one exception, because that ties in nicely with quite often, especially in his 1938 travelogue ‘the beautiful, tremendous, passionate, religious Door oud en nieuw Italië [Throughout old and new Italy’ he has in mind (p. 140). Italy]. In his text, he describes the journey he un- Four authors do pay more attention to dertook in 1935, the year in which the Second the regime: Celis, Haeck, Thans and Simons. Celis refers to Mussolini several times, but does Italo-Abyssinian War started. His narrator sees so without any value judgement. The routine soldiers on the train, heading for the war, and a check by ‘Mussolini’s “Blackshirts”’ at the bor- passenger tells him about il Duce: der, the speech Mussolini holds in Rome on He entirely changed us. We used to think like 21 April, on the occasion of the commemoration defeated people, like people who had been Travelling Against Time 11

strangers in their own house under the rule of speaks to the soul!’ (p. 117). In the end, it is Austria, France, Spain. Now we become Roman religion that counts. citizens again, like 20 centuries ago. […] A Simons’s narrator never feels the fascist sharpwitted French priest told me: ‘We have one regime as a threat. A good example is when the God, in heaven. You have a second one on earth: characters attend a parade by Carabinieri and Mussolini!’ We will win the war. Thanks to our fascist youth: modern equipment and the justice of our cause. (Thans, 1938, p. 22) It’s the 21st of April, Workers’ Day … in Italy! In fact, the Dies Natalis urbis Romae, the birthday Thans’s narrator has other people praise of the founding of Rome, but to get rid of the Mussolini for solving the anarchy and chaos socialist taste of International Workers’ Day on caused by the socialists (p. 25), for solving the the first of May, Mussolini decided to change religious question by explicitly declaring Italy the date with a full 8 days and dedicate it to to be a Catholic country (p. 26), for promoting nationalist fascism. Saint Job knows his people. domestic travelling to enhance national unity (Simons, 1930, p. 115) (p. 59), for trying to counter mass emigration The conflict between socialists and il Duce is (p. 91), for his agricultural and technological described in a remarkably neutral way. The innovations (p. 55, p. 80), and so on. The ma- International Workers’ Day, Rome’s birthday jority of these speakers are (Italian) clerics old and a fascist celebration are put on one line. and young, the others are ‘ordinary’ but de- The fact that Mussolini is compared to ‘Saint cent people, as for instance an old worker who Job’ in the proverb is fascinating: Ancient Rome, speaks ‘in civilized way’ and seems ‘educated’. Mussolini and Catholicism have become identi- One of the dominant themes in the represen- cal. This mechanism, which in fact resembles tation of Mussolini is that he has a modest the official state discourse that represents il Duce background himself and has known poverty as ‘the new Caesar’ (Burdett, 2007, p. 4), we can – and consequently cares for the ordinary see time and time again in this text. Mussolini workers and the poor (p. 108). This subtly reinstalls Rome’s former glory, for instance by links him to Francis of Assisi – the ‘Poverello’, making an arid region fertile again to feed all whom, one of the priests explains, Mussolini Italians (Simons, 1930, p. 50) and in doing so admires as ‘the Italian sanctity’ (p. 79). By performs a Christian duty because working the quoting all these ‘decent’ people, Thans, who land equals ‘being helpers of God’s Providence, is a member of the Franciscan Order himself, of God’s blessing’ (p. 94). Throughout the text, can refrain from having to pass judgement on the reader is shown a world of harmony, where Mussolini. The only exceptions are two small opposites meet and reconcile: priests and work- compliments: he likes the fact that fascists got ers, inhabitants from different parts of , rid of vendors of annoying tour- Flemish and Dutch or Germans, Italians and ists (p. 27) and he seems to appreciate the travellers. They all do exactly the same as the new train carriages: ‘a glass salon with velvet tribes that eventually founded Rome: they frat- benches. And no class distinction’ (p. 120); ernize in the Caput Mundi. When the charac- but for the rest, this narrator keeps his dis- ters listen to boy scouts singing in praise of tance. There is a scene in which he condemns Mussolini, they hope to hear such songs back the type of magazines and books that are for home one day: ‘This image of Young Italy, rising sale at the newsstand: ‘90 percent of it is sex- in the morning sky, is what we carry with us to appeal! If the Duce wants to make his people Young Flanders!’ (p. 122). The novel ends and healthy and strong, he will have to change begins with the same exclamation: ‘Long live this’ (p. 55). Or: time will tell. When the nar- Mussolini’ (p. 15, p. 172). rator serves mass alongside a local priest and apologizes beforehand for the fact that he is not familiar with the local ceremonies, his Italian colleague says, with a smile: ‘Che dice! Conclusion What are you saying!’ Eventually, the narrator has to agree: ‘We are standing at the altar of Italy was a popular travel destination for Il Crocifisso. Even without words this Crucifix Catholic Flemish writers in the interwar period. 12 T.M.J. Sintobin

The travelogues they published stood in a long a travelogue. In the letters he wrote to his wife representational tradition and reproduced (in while travelling, we see a remarkable evolu- the case of Goethe or Grand Tour travelogues) tion. Initially, he shares the tourist gaze with or contested (in the case of Baedeker) various the writers discussed above and does not pay existing discourses, with their stereotypes. In much attention to the fascist regime. At best, doing so, we can identify their narrators as typi- he sees it as something insignificant that will cal tourists with their typical tourist gazes and pass away soon: only art is eternal, and Italy expectations, and their ambition to distinguish will make him religious and healthy again. themselves from the other tourists. Most of them Gradually, his interpretation of Italy starts to do not take into account an entirely different dis- shift. In Palermo, he is deeply shocked by an course, the one in newspapers from those days: encounter with a 13-year-old prostitute and a they often fail to mention the contested political starving beggar. He writes to his wife that he situation in their travelogues, and if they do, can no longer turn away from ‘the filth that their writings echo the acquiescent attitude the he sees, with all that militarism. The harbor of Roman showed in those days. Palermo is full of warships, that burn tons of The presence of Mussolini and his regime does money every evening to keep their searchlights not destroy the prescribed tourist experience of going’ (Walschap, 1998, p. 372). In the terms the country. Historian Frances Stonor Saunders of Lacan: the Real breaks through the Symbolic noted in her book The Woman Who Shot Mussolini Order and destroys its system of signs. (Stonor Saunders, 2010) that il Duce himself Walschap never wrote an officially pub- had become an object of interest, a part of the lished travelogue about his journey. All we have Grand Tour as it were: ‘To see him was as much is four short fragments, published between a part of the long-planned trip to the Eternal 1934 and 1935 in the literary magazine Forum City as it was to visit the ruins or to walk over that subtly ironize contemporary Europe – and the places where the heroes of antiquity had a set of private letters to his wife with the high- once walked,’ ‘women travellers [dreamt] of tea ly critical passage I just quoted. How come he is with Mussolini’ (Stonor Saunders, 2010, p. 5). able to leave the prescribed tourist gaze behind? This case study from the first half of the 20th One reason might be the fact that this very in- century makes clear how resilient tourism and telligent author was engaged in a severe con- tourism discourse was, in casu travelogues with flict with prominent members of the Catholic a literary ambition, in the face of devastating Church in those days, who disapproved of his external events. ‘perverted’ works and his past as a failed semi- How can we evaluate this? On the one narian (Brems, 2011). Or maybe the fact that hand it is clear that these travellers are locked his travelogue occurred in private communica- up within the frame of mind and the insti- tion, and not as a book, allowed him to escape tutions (publishing house; audience; liter- the dominant discourse? Possibly, the genre of ary criticism; their own background) of the the ‘Catholic travelogue to Italy’ obeyed strict Catholic pillar. Their tourist gaze is entirely rules in the interwar period: it was not open to shaped by this particular context, as gazes are discussions of politics and concentrated on the (Urry, 1990), ‘apoliticized’ and ‘blind to other stereotypical representation of the destination. sights’ than the stereotype they have been No matter the reason, given the fact that at taught (Wang, 2000, p. 161). Could we have least one author managed to shatter the tourist expected these people to break out of this dis- gaze, be it in private, makes it tempting to de- course, given the fact that nowadays people scribe the conventional discourse as examples travel to Egypt and see nothing but pyramids of ‘blind’ or ‘blinded tourism’, a new term, in a and camels, to South Africa to see just vine- way the opposite of ‘’ or ‘thana- yards and wildlife? On the other hand, at least tourism’ (Seaton, 2009) that has people trav- one of their contemporaries did exactly that, elling to problematic sites to witness violence as I have argued elsewhere (Sintobin, 2013a). and (reminders of) death. Gerard Walschap travelled to Italy in the sum- By limiting myself to travelogues pub- mer of 1934. He had received a grant from the lished as books, I evidently only hit the surface government and the idea was for him to write of a broad phenomenon here. Further research Travelling Against Time 13

should take travelogues published in differ- perfectly in a meta-tourist narrative: a narrative ent media (official and private) into account as aiming at those customers who are interested well as travelogues about different destinations in the behind-the-scenes of the tourist industry, (Hitler’s Germany, Franco’s Spain, Salazar’s in the staging rather than the stage, reviewing Portugal) and periods. Last but not least, the how, why and when other people were blind to question can be asked how tourism practition- the reality of the destination. Their numbers are ers can make use of cases like this. I think it fits increasing.

Notes

1 If we concentrate on the USA, for instance, we see a somewhat different pattern: a similar steady rise, but with dips between 1997 and 1998, between 2000 and 2003 and between 2008 and 2009 (World Bank Group, n.d.b). 2 In 1922, the Italian government decided to offer free visas to Belgians – a clear indication that they actively promoted tourism from Flanders. 3 F.i. on March 24: ‘Lecture with light-images about “Italy” by professor De Vis’ – in the city hall of Mechelen – and ‘adorned with singing and music’ (1922, p. 76). 4 F.i. Jos. Joos., ‘Assisi’, 1923, pp. 162–166 – illustrated with pictures provided by the Office Italien du Tourisme. 5 Claes, 1925, p. 193. 6 ‘Mijne reis naer Italië en Roomen, 1839–1840’ (manuscript); Reis naer Loretten (1843), Beschryving der merkweerdigste Oudheden van Assisi (1841) and Het liefdadig Roomen (1842). 7 Italy was part of an all-inclusive tour for 8 to 28 August 1922, which cost 835 fr. third class, 1150 fr. second class (1922, p. 144). A tour around Easter in 1926 cost ‘fr. 1200’, with Stan Leurs, engineer and professor art history at the University of , as a guide (1925, p. 475).

References

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