The thesis examines the theme of journey in Céline's debut novel Journey to the End of the Night (Voyage au bout de la nuit, 1932). One of the key questions the author addresses during his exploration is how different episodes of a journey affect the structure of a novel, its genre, and what is their genetic, philosophical and symbolic basis. It has been found that despite the genre syncretism the work cannot apply completely to a specific genre. The thesis mainly focuses on Bardamu's journey to colonial Africa, which in itself dictates the need to look at the novel within a specific historical and political context. The thesis also analyses the depiction of Africa and explores in what way Céline's work responds to the existing literary conventions of travelogues, which adhere to the colonial exoticism during the second French colonial empire. The latter is characterized by colonial discourse, the glorification of colonists' work, Manichaean depiction of the natives and newcomers, as well as an inaccurate and stereotypical construction of their identity. It has been established that Céline opposes such exotic travelogue literature with irony and grotesque, used to demythicise colonialism. The novel does not establish nor reinforce any colonial authority; on the contrary, the colonial system falls into its own snare and is doomed to fail. The African episode is recognized as a key moment in the novel as it directly follows Bardamu's experience of war and presents a link between Europe and Africa and the first hope for improvement. The journey to Africa proves as the exact opposite – it is crucial for the construction of Céline's night. It strengthens the protagonist's belief about universal evil and becomes a symbol for sickness and decay, just another protraction of war. Bardamu compares the journey with hell, hence his voyage to Africa represents the descent to the underworld. In this regard the novel predominantly draws on Antiquity rather than typical colonial literature. The narrator is not interested in cultural and geographical characteristics of Africa, but instead tries to answer basic existential questions through limit situations, faced because of the hostile tropical environment and its inhabitants. The journey is represented symbolically rather than literaly in terms of travelling. Thus the author re-establishes one of the oldest literary motifs, where the journey is recognized as a way of discovering the soul, cognisance and truth.
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