Traversing Paris: French Travel Writing Practices in the Late Twentieth Century

Traversing Paris is an analysis of the travel writing of Annie Ernaux, François Maspero and Jean Rolin and the photography of Anaik Frantz. The book examines the writing practices of three French writers working in the closing decades of the twentieth century in Paris. The aim is to discover whether travel writing, a practice chosen by all three, belongs to a specific discourse which suits the writing practice of the authors in their treatment of the contemporary urban space of Paris. The five chapters follow the stages of a journey drawing on theoretical and critical approaches by McIlvanney, Thomas, Giard, Sheringham, Barthes, Foucault, Burton, Forsdick, Scott and de Certeau, and the work concludes with a framework for further research in travel writing practices. The key author under study is Annie Ernaux, and Mansfields Traversing Paris provides a major contribution to the study of her journal writing, examining in detail her 1993 book, Journal du dehors and her subsequent work in 2000 La Vie extérieure.