Introduction

1According to a popular saying—or is it a song?—

2‘it’s a wild, wild world! ’

3So it is, as every day tends to confirm!

4Inspired by this profound wisdom, I would offer something like a variation

5‘Transport is a wide, wide word’

6Now, since the door has been opened to puns, we might as well carry on a little further and see what is hidden behind the façade of such an ordinary, everyday and apparently innocent word as ‘transport’. In fact, the more one looks into it, the more meanings it seems to acquire, the more extensions seem to crop up, and all equally full of interest. As it happens, what is true in French is also valid in English, and adding an ‘s’ to the initial word opens a few more avenues.

7The first idea that comes to mind is simply that commonly referred to as ‘Means of Transport’: ships, railways, planes, buses, cars, etc., elements of daily reality but also parts of national histories: what would modern Canada be without its railways?

8Then one may think of the people who used these means of transport, in very different states of mind, some full of enthusiasm, some much against their will; from one continent to another, be it the Americas, Africa, Europe or Oceania. To be transported, for an 18th century West African or a 19th century British convict, was hardly a bright future to look forward to. From transportation to enslavement, from passenger to cargo, there was the thinnest of borderlines.

9But, by a rather ironical twist of meaning, to be ‘transported’ can also mean to be overjoyed, to be carried away, to be swept off one’s feet, by a strong, and pleasant, emotion. How strange that a word should have acquired exactly opposite connotations, positive and negative, in the course of its existence!

10Consequently, this ambiguity has not escaped writers, who have found in transport an almost inexhaustible topic, a wonderful treasure chest. If in doubt, see what an Agatha Christie can do with a mere railway carriage in Middle Europe or a simple cruise-ship on the Nile. And this is only one of the best-known examples.

11As it turns out, even ideas and concepts can be transported from one shore, or sphere, or field, to another, and words, being ‘transported’, may end up being ‘translated’ and, with luck, not be lost in the aforesaid translation. That would be transport seen from a philosophical or metaphorical point of view.

12With all this in mind, it became clear that such a notion was extremely interesting to explore, and the next best thing to do seemed to share it, in a spirit of grand generosity! And one of the most pleasant and rewarding ways of doing so was to organize one of these friendly gatherings known as a ‘conference’—preferably international. No sooner said than done.... well, with a few months’ time allowed for the technical aspects.

13But the idea of ‘Transport (s)’ must have sounded attractive to many for, although we had restricted the historical and geographical area to the British Empire and the Commonwealth (wide enough in itself), offers of papers reached us not only from France, but also from Germany and Spain, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, the United States and Switzerland, all of which was extremely flattering.

14So, after quite a lot of hard work (the thanks are to be found at the end of this introduction), we all met in Montpellier, France, on November 3rd, 4th and 5th, 2005.

15Owing to personal and professional obligations, the papers were not delivered in the same order as the one followed in this book; we have tried to gather them under some logical headings, and to ensure some sort of progression from ‘Means of Transport’ through ‘Forced Transport’ and ‘Travelling’ to ’Crossing Borders’.

16Wolfgang Binder delivered the keynote address thanks to which, with the support of music and pictures, he opened the door to the notions of movement, starting a few centuries back.

17A first part, entitled ‘Means of Transport’, includes a paper on the Railways of New Zealand in the 19th century by Bruce Smith, one by Stephen Little and Julian Hine dealing with Irish and Australian Railways and one by Barbara Helly on South African taxis.

18The second part, ‘Forced Transport’, is devoted to those who hardly or never asked to be ‘transported’: Olaudah Equiano and millions of African slaves (Benaouda Lebdai), the victims of the Middle Passage (Patricia Krus), and the sailors who ‘accompanied’ them (Olivette Otele), the women who crossed the black water from India to the West Indies (Rita Christian), the fate of the last Tasmanian Aborigines (Susan Barrett), the Japanese-Canadians forcefully evacuated during World War II (Teresa Gibert), and the traces left in memories by the Underground Railroad (Isabel Alonso-Breto).

19We then move to a gentler (not always) kind of transport: ‘Travelling’: in 18th century Carolina (Lloyd Johnson), in 19th century India with one Scot (Florence D’Souza), in the Tongan Islands (Nelly Gillet), on South Asian Railways (Louise Harrington), or on an Indian train (Evelyne Hanquart-Turner).

20And, almost inevitably, transports eventually take us across all sorts of boundaries, hence the last part: ‘Crossing Borders’, as applied to Salman Rushdie (Matt Kimmich), or Jamal Mahjoub, with a translator-narrator (Guillaume Cingal), or V. S. Naipaul (Florence Labaune-Demeule), or Rushdie again (John Mc Leod and Cécile Léonard).

21The last two papers (Melissa Adams and Candace Ward) are devoted to more general considerations: how feelings, and even mentalities can be transferred/transported from one culture to another.

22Obviously, twenty three papers, however varied their scope, can hardly do justice to such a rich topic as transport (s); obviously, a second conference would be needed to deal with it properly, or more; well, one day, maybe!

23But, as always, time and money being in short supply, and considering the amount of work and of goodwill which was required to hold the conference in November 2005, I shall restrict myself to the thanking of the numerous people who contributed to the success of the event.

24The CNRS (French Centre for Research) at Montpellier hosted the conference on Thursday and Friday and very generously lent not only a huge amphitheatre but also very modern appliances, which the participants made good use of. The University of Montpellier III/Paul-Valéry provided a conference room on Saturday, smaller but cozier.

25As for financing, we are heavily indebted to the Pôle Universitaire Européen in Montpellier and the University mentioned above, to which we are proud of belonging (both the Conseil Scientifique and the Equipe d’Accueil) which most kindly and graciously granted the money necessary for the holding of the conference.

26As regards individuals, our warmest thanks go to:

27Isabelle Ronzetti, the secretary in charge of research at the University, helpful, efficient, available and smiling.

28Magali Favier and Emilie Devogelaere, the two students who came to lend a much needed hand during the conference (the latter acting also as webmaster for the Cerpac website).

29Marie-Pierre Conche, who displayed interesting books published by the University, including our collection ‘Les Carnets du Cerpac’.

30The five colleagues who, retired or not, kindly accepted to chair a half-day of papers, namely, in purely chronological order: Jean-Pierre Martin (Université de Provence, Aix-Marseille I), John Mc Leod (Leeds University, UK), Wolfgang Binder (University of Erlangen, Germany), Florence D’Souza (Université Charles de Gaulle/Lille III), and Tim Mc Loughlin (Université Paul-Valéry/ Montpellier III).

31Mélanie Joseph-Villain and Gilles Teulié, members of the Cerpac, who actually volunteered to re-read the papers!

32And, last but not least, Judith Misrahi-Barak, who did three quarters of the work, including drafting the budget, writing messages, collecting abstracts and biodata, and plenty of other rather dull chores; neither the conference not the present proceedings would have seen the light without her energetic action.

33Which means that having the initial idea: Transport(s), was but a very small part of the whole business. It required several people, not forgetting the participants who travelled miles and miles to join us, to make it, indeed ‘a wide, wide word’.