Exoticism and Hostility in "A Year in Algeria, Excursions and Remembrances" (1887)

Abstract

Illustrated travelogues about French-colonized territories in North Africa disseminated, through images and texts, stereotypes that defined their inhabitants as "barbarians," "apathetic," and "sensual"—among other unflattering adjectives—and contributed to justifying the "civilizing" colonialism of the great European powers. Based on this premise, this article presents an analysis of the travelogue *A Year in Algeria*, written in 1887 by the Frenchman M.-J. Baudel. Our analysis of the work, which understood texts and images as discourses—as conceived by Michel Foucault—led us to the conclusion that travelogues reveal how hostility and hospitality are confused and mixed in these illustrated accounts intended to stimulate travelers, making this intricate relationship between colonizers and colonized a relevant part of the constitution of the tourist imaginary about the colonized territories.