Although written at the end of the long nineteenth century, Victor Segalen’s theoretical work, the Essai sur l’exotisme [Essay on Exoticism] speaks directly to many twentieth- and twenty-first-century concerns, particularly issues raised by post-colonial theory and intercultural studies. Segalen (1878-1919) was a Breton naval doctor, novelist, poet and archaeologist. Highly respected in select literary circles, he was nevertheless considered a minor writer in his own lifetime, and his importance only began to be recognized in the mid twentieth century. The Essai bridges the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: though incomplete, it is an ambitious and broad-ranging attempt to renew the notion of …
2887 words
Citation: Yee, Jennifer. "Essai sur l'exotisme". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 October 2016 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35763, accessed 05 May 2024.]
