Jean Potocki, cosmopolite européen ?
Résumé
Can we say that Jean Potocki is a European cosmopolitan? To answer,Dominique Triaire analyses two European travel stories. The first was writtenby Potocki at the age of 26 on the occasion of a visit to Holland whenthe country had risen up against the Stadtholder: Voyage en Hollande, faitpendant la révolution de 1787. The traveller, despite his European culture,seems to remain an outsider: his gaze remains on the surface of things, powerless to grasp the real meaning. He is in the opposite circumstancewhen he writes a short text of propaganda in 1810 to boast of an urbanproject in Crimea: Sophio-polis sur la côté méridionale de Crimée entreSimos et Alupka [“Sophio-polis on the southern coast of Crimea, betweenSimos and Alupka”]. In this case, everything makes sense. Even thoughPotocki belongs to the European literary heritage, he remains very attachedto his Slavic roots as evidenced by the themes of his historical research