HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL JOURNEY TO MONTENEGRO BY VIALLA DE
SOMMIERES FOUNDING BOOK OF A PARADOXICAL IMAGINARY OF A
JOURNEY TO MONTENEGRO
In 1820, Vialla de Sommières published in Paris his book Historical and
political journey to Montenegro. He was Commander of the Second division of
Illyrian army in Ragusa from 1812 to 1813. Later, this work was used by many
19th century French travel writers as a model source for their own observations
on Montenegro. Naturally, travelling to an unknown country implies an element
of discovery. By analysing de Sommières’s text and the works by other French
travel writers (P. Loti, X. Marmier, H. Avelot, J. de la Nézière, F. Lenorment, Ch.
Yriarte, M. Sermet, l’abbé P. Bauron) we have been able to situate descriptions
of journeys to and throughout Montenegro, which express an effect of surprise
or discovery, and we have classified our findings in four sections: difficult access
to astonishing landscapes, the cult of freedom, the character of Montenegrins,
and the position of women.
Thus, a journey to Montenegro becomes a kind of a return to a distant, precarious
and, even, timeless epoch. In this sense, Vialla de Sommières’s work constitutes
a founding work of a paradoxical imaginary of a journey to Montenegro, as the
analysis of this travel story proposes.
Key words: Montenegro, Vialla de Sommières, imaginary, story, travellers,
writers
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