This article examines the context of the renewal of the study of travel literature. In order to better understand its intellectual objectives and sociological parameters, I have chosen Candide of Voltaire and L'Africain of J.M.G Le Clézio. The creation of two authors establish a relation with the outer world and the Other, and their writing difference play a critical role in their ways of interacting and traveling in different geographical spaces and times. The context of travel literature thus creates certain parallels between the writing of authors and the literature of traveller. The need for assessing the legacy of writing also motivates the study of its advent in early ancient and modern texts. The representation of the other has become one of the main purposes of traveling and writing. The evolution of the genre in the last couple of centuries demonstrates a stronger desire among certain authors in search of cultural diversity.