L’AVENTURE HUMAINE: SPIRITUALITY, MYTH, AND POWER IN THE POST-WAR TRAVEL NARRATIVES OF LOUISE WEISS by Sarah Elizabeth Pymm A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Modern Languages School of Languages, Cultures, Art History, and Music College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham July 2018 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT This thesis considers the post-war œuvre of Louise Weiss through the analytical framework of the travel narrative. The primary sources for this study comprise the substantial number of previously unexamined journal articles, photographic collections, monographs, and short documentaries which Weiss wrote following her journeys throughout Asia, North America, Africa, and the Middle East in the twenty-five years after the Second World War. Previously defined by her early career as a journalist, her lifelong advocacy for peace, and her campaigns for women’s suffrage during the interwar period, this study positions Weiss in a new narrative – that of post-war travel writer with a desire to discover a moral code that would mitigate the turbulence and fragility she perceived in the twentieth century. The analysis of this considerable body of source material is approached through the themes of spirituality, myth, and power. These themes, which emerge organically from Weiss's multi- media post-war œuvre, offer a fresh perspective on the French post-war travel narrative and allow a new understanding of both the traveller’s gaze and the notion of displacement. For John, my husband, and Dawn, my mother, who have supported me throughout my journey. Dedicated to the memory of Bert, my father, and Angela, my supervisor. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Without the help and support of a number of exceptional people, this journey would not have been completed. I am immensely grateful to my supervisors, Dr Angela Kershaw and Dr Berny Sèbe – two exemplary researchers who have supported me with unfailing enthusiasm and encouragement. Their wisdom, patience, and support has been a source of inspiration, guidance, and pleasure. As a part-time doctoral student, I could not have wished for a better supervisory team with whom to share this unique experience. Precious memories to treasure. Thanks are due also to those who have helped with access to archival resources: the Document Supply Team at the University of Birmingham whose skills have unearthed the most elusive of texts; M. Daniel Brémaud of the Centre National de la Cinématographie who braved probably one of the worst Parisian winters to roll the projectors in the film archive; and the curators and staff of the Musée de Saverne who welcomed me on a research visit and made available the entirety of archives bequeathed to them by Louise Weiss. Finally, my gratitude goes to those who are closest to me – my family who have shown limitless amounts of patience over these past years and supported me throughout. CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION Louise Weiss's Aventure Humaine: trajectories, paths, and routes 0 1 From journaliste to voyageuse 0 2 Weiss’s post-war desire to travel 0 6 On the trail of Weiss’s travel narratives 013 Unchartered territory 021 Research focus 026 PART 1: SPIRITUALITY Chapter 1 Spiritual awakenings: an encounter with Weiss’s emerging spirituality 031 A Republican upbringing: Weiss's journey through Third Republic France 031 Weiss's post-war perspective on spirituality 041 Weiss’s post-war spirituality awakens 045 Spirituality as sanctuary in Weiss's post-war travel narratives 050 The path to Weiss's spiritual gaze 060 Chapter 2 Sacrificial ritual and the road to sanctuary: an encounter with pre- Columbian spirituality 062 Where the past meets the present 063 From witness to exote 074 From exote to impressionniste 081 The interplay of the past and the present in contemporary Mexico 087 Chapter 3 Places, pilgrims, priests, and prayers: an encounter witH spiritual practices of the twentieth century 092 Places: spiritual sanctuaries set apart from the contemporary world 094 Pilgrims and priests: between spaces of refuge and turmoil 103 Prayers: linguistic and behavioural traits in secular and spiritual spaces 110 Weiss's encounter with twentieth-century spirituality 120 PART 2: MYTH Chapter 4 An enchanted gaze: Weiss's journey from spirituality to myth 124 Locating Weiss's mythological perspective in twentieth-century France 126 Towards a post-war gaze: Weiss's journey to mythological encounters 129 Weiss's post-war mythological perspective 133 Specificity of place I: maps and illustrations 134 Specificity of place II: text and structure 145 Crossing the boundary between myth and the world 152 En route to mythological encounters 158 Chapter 5 Moving through space and time: Weiss's Journey through the myths of North America 160 Displacement through the contact zone 161 An analysis of displacement in Weiss's North American travel narratives 164 Flying from Mexico to New Orleans 169 Weiss's walk around the town of Fort-Smith 178 A call for fresh interpretations of displacement 182 A fresh perspective: temporal displacement 184 Moving between interpretations of displacement 189 Chapter 6 Running through the mind: Weiss’s journey through the myths of Asia 192 Weiss's flight from Anchorage to Tokyo 193 Wandering the streets of Tokyo 197 Moving between word and image 201 An analysis of displacement in Weiss's visual travel narratives 206 The importance of a shared heritage 218 Finding common ground in the many interpretations of displacement 224 PART 3: POWER Chapter 7 Power and morality, war and peace: engaging witH expressions of supremacy 226 Weiss's perspective on coercive power 227 Weiss’s response to the Great War 228 Weiss's experience as a journalist 231 A pragmatic distinction between journalist and travel writer 234 Re-examining Weiss’s self-appointed role of witness 237 Weiss's four measures of power: a question of structure 242 A qui le pouvoir? A qui le droit de vivre? 250 En quel nom? 253 L’Arme absolue 254 Moving to a participant’s view of powerful encounters 255 Chapter 8 Testing the moral code: engaging with powerful ideologies 257 France’s mission civilisatrice 259 Madagascar: power and morality in colonialism and decolonisation 261 Power and morality in pre-colonial times: the reign of Queen Ranavalona 262 La Grande Île under Marshall Gallieni’s rule 264 Negotiating post-colonial power under Tsiranana’s Presidency 275 China: power and morality under Communist rule 280 Finding the moral code in l’arme absolue 288 Chapter 9 On tHe road to modernity: engaging witH tHe power of science and industry 291 Modernity I: scientific developments 293 Modernity II: industrial progress 295 Understanding the road to modernity 298 Depicting scientific developments in Weiss's visual travel narratives 301 Narrating scientific developments in Weiss's text-based travel narratives 306 The power of modernity: industrial progress 310 Industrial progress in the Middle East: Syria 311 Routes to industrial progress: Mexico and Alaska 315 A comparative perspective on industrial progress in Syria and North America 319 Face to face with the power of science and industry 322 CONCLUSION Louise Weiss's Aventure Humaine: heading home 323 Experiential knowledge and gaze 325 Towards a typology of displacement 332 Extended itineraries 335 APPENDIX 1 Portraits in Todorov’s gallery of travellers 337 APPENDIX 2 Identifying the travel narrative: Reichler’s model of definition and displacement 341 Features of Reichler’s littérature de voyage and récit de voyage with examples 343 A list of Weiss's travel narratives from Reichler’s typology 350 BIBLIOGRAPHY 356 LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1 A still from Premiers chrétiens et croisés en Syrie showing an ancient road at 03:15 048 Figure 2: A still from Face au volcan face au cyclone showing solidified lava flows running down to the rocky coastline at 02:07 051 Figure 3 A still from Face au volcan face au cyclone showing the barren and inhospitable landscape of La Réunion at 02:19 052 Figure 4 A still from Face au volcan face au cyclone of a memorial plaque to a young islander killed in the worst cyclone to hit La Réunion in 1932 at 12:10 053 Figure 5 A still from Face au volcan face au cyclone showing Notre-Dame-des- Neiges, Cilaos at 05:12 055 Figure 6 Stills from Face au volcan face au cyclone showing a Christian icon (left) at 03:47 and a Christian shrine at 06:57 (right) 056 Figure 7 A still from Allah aux Comores showing whitewashed walls of a mosque reaching out of dark shadows at 03:34 058 Figure 8 A still from L’Amour des créatures: danses et sanctuaires du Saurashtra of a Jain temple at 02:24 058 Figure 9 A photograph featured in Paris Match showing exhumed burial casket 066 Figure 10 A double page spread from Paris Match to illustrate the size of the photograph in relation to the other constituent elements 067 Figure 11 A double page spread from La Syrie showing photographs of the closed, broken casket (bottom left) and