Essay on Exoticism

An Aesthetics of Diversity

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by Victor Segalen,

Edited by Yael Rachel Schlick,

Foreword by Harry Harootunian

Duke University Press

Due/Published February 2002, 120 pages, paper

ISBN 0822328224

The "Other"--source of fear and fascination; emblem of difference demonized and romanticized. Theories of alterity and cultural diversity abound in the contemporary academic landscape. Victor Segalen's early attempt to theorize the exotic is a crucial reference point for all discussions of alterity, diversity, and ethnicity.

 Written over the course of fourteen years between 1904 and 1918, at the height of the age of imperialism, Essay on Exoticism encompasses Segalen's attempts to define "true Exoticism." This concept, he hoped, would not only replace nineteenth-century notions of exoticism that he considered tawdry and romantic, but also redirect his contemporaries' propensity to reduce the exotic to the "colonial." His critique envisions a mechanism that appreciates cultural difference--which it posits as an aesthetic and ontological value--rather than assimilating it: "Exoticism's power is nothing other than the ability to conceive otherwise," he writes. Segalen's pioneering work on otherness anticipates and informs much of the current postcolonial critique of colonial discourse. 

Contents

Foreword: The Exotics of Nowhere
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chronology: Victor Segalen (1878Ð1919)
Essay on Exoticism
Notes
Other Works by Victor Segalen Available in English
Selected Critical Works on Victor Segalen in English
Index

Series: Post-Contemporary Interventions

"At a time when the moral battles for the 'other' have been waged, when the constructedness of identities has been demonstrated in extenso, it comes as a refreshing surprise to see Segalen struggle with the terminology of otherness and difference in the context of the term exoticism. His ruminations represent a fascinating and important intervention in present theoretical debates. For too long Segalen has been a secret among the initiate few; the time for broadcasting his ideas more widely is overdue."--Andreas Michel, Indiana University

"It is exciting to see Segalen's most comprehensive and influential theoretical text translated into English, particularly given its growing impact on colonial/postcolonial studies."--Chris Bongie, College of William and Mary