Uncertain travels, painful memories of the Mediterranean post-1945
Introduction
Seasick: Uncertain travels, painful memories of the Mediterranean post-1945.
Y.Gastaut
Many have depicted the Mediterranean, proving the draw of this sea, a space of meetings and conflicts alike. Many stories refer to this ever-present sea, the foodstuff of many an active imagination.
To the echoes of the travelers of the « Orient » during the first half of the nineteenth century[1] (as shown in this program about an exhibit entitled « The Provencals’ Orient »), many generations of observers, scholars, artists, writers, poets musicians and even simple witnesses have translated in words and images the singular moment in which they crossed that sea.
Between the two world wars, before Paul Morand who, after an eventful trip of the Mediterranean basin in 1934, revealed his impression under the title The Mediterranean, the Sea of Surprises[2], Henry de Montherlant gazed with wonder upon Tangiers in 1930: «From my perspective, the sea seemed to hang above the town. You could lay your eyes on Europe and Africa at the same time»[3]. The same interest appears in Tunisian writer Ali Douagi’s humorous and passionate narration of his Tour of Mediterranean Tavers in 1933[4].
From one shore to the other, any gaze upon this sea has lingered on the beauty of the scenery and the colors, the daydreaming punctuated by the gentle waters and the inescapable pull of the sea, such as the one that engulfs Ulysses, the hero of Homer’s The Illiad and The Odyssey (circa 850 and 750 BC) and the one that takes over Marius, the hero of Marcel Pagnol’s trilogy[5]: dreaming of different pastures, this son of a café owner haunting the harbors of Marseille, yearning for a long trip to the chagrin of Fanny –their love cannot withstand the call of the sea. This dream of a marine quest has, in other cases, animated the peoples south of the basin.
By incorporating these « dreams of voyages », gazing upon the sea is not simply limited to irenic images: far from flattering portraits and unifying visions brimming with hope, the sea is seen as filled with reefs and pitfalls, even a tearing force. For those who did not make this choice, those who go through events they cannot control, crossing the sea is a painful and unimaginable experience. These migrants uprooted indefinitely or temporarily, looked at the sea with fearful eyes despite the surviving hope. And if we study the years following 1945, many groups of populations had to embark upon the sea in difficult conditions.
[1] See Michèle Salinas, Voyages et voyageurs en Algérie (1830-1930), Toulouse, Privat, 1989 or Jean-Claude Brechet, Le voyage en Orient, anthologie des voyageurs français dans le Levant au XIXème, Paris, Laffont, 1992. See the more recent virtual exhibition of the BNF, entitled« Le voyage en Orient » : http://expositions.bnf.fr/veo/
[2] Paul Morand (1888-1976), Méditerranée, mer des surprises, Paris, Mame, 1943
[3] Henry de Montherland (1985-1972), « un Noël à Tanger » in Lumière et Radio, n°16, December 1930
[4] Ali Douagi (1909-1949), Périple à travers les bars de la Méditerranée, Tunis, MTE, 1962 ; see also Michel Potet, Ali Douagi, un humoriste en croisière, in Revue de littérature comparée, 1-1994, pp.29-34.
[5] Marcel Pagnol (1895-1974), Marius, Paris, Fasquelle, 1928, stage play adapted to the big screen by Alexandre Korda in 1931.
Introduction
I. Exodus, a dramatic Mediterra...
II. A Sea of Misfortune during ...
III. The Sea, starting point of...
IV. Calmer Travels?
Abstract
Many have depicted the Mediterranean, proving the draw of this sea, a space of meetings and conflicts alike. Many stories refer to this ever-present sea, the foodstuff of many an active imagination. To the echoes of the travelers of the « Orient » during the first half of the nineteenth century (as shown in this program about an exhibit entitled « The Provencals’ Orient »), many generations of observers, scholars, artists, writers, poets musicians and even simple witnesses have translated in words and images the singular moment in which they crossed that sea. [...]
Author
Gastaut yvan
Lecturer in contemporary history, University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, URMIS.