Le désenchantement du voyageur utopique dans la littérature classique
Disenchantment of the Utopian Traveler in Classical Literature

Summary/Abstract: During the 17th and 18th centuries, the “new philosophy” of Descartes and Bacon led to a progressive disenchantment with “utopian optimism.” Although they continued to treat formally the exotic kingdoms they imagined as ideal places and societies, some of the authors of utopian travel books suspected that these were neither entirely desirable nor reliable. This duplicity of the authors situated their main characters in a difficult position, that we propose to call a “narrator in a dystopian position.” This paper seeks to observe this process in the works of several classical writers such as Cyrano de Bergerac, Denis Veiras, and Gabriel de Foigny.

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