L’IMAGE DU MONTENEGRO ET UN POINT DU VUE SUR LA NARRATION DANS LETTRES SUR L’ADRIATIQUE ET LE MONTENEGRO DE XAVIER MARMIER

IMAGE OF MONTENEGRO AND VIEWPOINT ON NARRATION IN XAVIER MARMIER’S LETTERS ON THE ADRIATIC AND MONTENEGRO In the present article, we intend to present Letters on the Adriatic and Montenegro by Xavier Marmier, a French traveller and writer who took many trips around the world, including Montenegro in 1852. His journey is described in two volumes, and the second one is mainly devoted to Montenegro (six out of eight chapters). He spent two months in Montenegro and wrote a beautiful testimony of this period, relying on the historical facts, testimonies of the inhabitants and on his personal impressions. In the first part of our paper, we provide a summary of his writing on Montenegro, focusing on points such as the historical context, the living conditions of the people, as well as on their customs and traditions. In the second part, we propose a reflection on the narration and more precisely on the narrative temporality in this work. We seek to identify the different temporal markers in order to explain the use of certain tenses in the narrative. Key words: Montenegro, Xavier Marmier, travel writing, narration, temporality