The 鈥淥ther鈥濃攕ource of fear and fascination; emblem of difference demonized and romanticized. Theories of alterity and cultural diversity abound in the contemporary academic landscape. Victor Segalen鈥檚 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鈥檚 attempts to define 鈥渢rue Exoticism.鈥 This concept, he hoped, would not only replace nineteenth-century notions of exoticism that he considered tawdry and romantic, but also redirect his contemporaries鈥 propensity to reduce the exotic to the 鈥渃olonial.鈥 His critique envisions a mechanism that appreciates cultural difference鈥攚hich it posits as an aesthetic and ontological value鈥攔ather than assimilating it: 鈥淓xoticism鈥檚 power is nothing other than the ability to conceive otherwise,鈥 he writes. Segalen鈥檚 pioneering work on otherness anticipates and informs much of the current postcolonial critique of colonial discourse. As such Essay on Exoticism is essential reading for both cultural theorists or those with an interest in the politics of difference and diversity.
Translated and edited by Y盲el Schlick
