Victor Segalen and the Aesthetics of Diversity

Victor Segalen (1878-1919) is one of the leading twentieth-century critics of exoticism. Rejecting the colonial literature of his time, he sought new means of approaching non-Western cultures. Segalen has become a common point of reference for a series of important contemporary thinkers (Baudrillard, Glissant, Said, Todorov). However, his work is not yet widely available to English-language readers. This study will provide an invaluable introduction to Segalen for those interested in a variety of fields (travel writing, literary criticism, post-colonial criticism, anthropology).