Shadow Plays: René Leys and the Exotic Quest

Shadow Plays: René Leys and the Exotic Quest Gianna Quach V ICTOR SEGALEN’S René Leys is a quest for the exotic at a time when the very existence of exoticism is put in question. Written in 1913-14, revised in 1915-16, and published posthumously in 192122 , René Leys articulates the profound anxiety surrounding exoticism in its modern twentieth-century form, when the world’s diversity was increasingly threatened by the Westernizing and homogenizing effects of imperialism. According to Chris Bongie, René Leys occupies a sort of transitional middle period in the evolution of Segalen’s theory of exoticism. The novel explores the exotic dilemma in all its complexity. It is situated between an exoticism in crisis (announced in Segalen’s “ Gauguin dans son dernier décor,” 1904) and exoticism’s resuscitation in the de-historicized realm of the imagination and art {“ Hommage à Gauguin,” 1916), as Segalen solves the problem of exoticism’s losing battle with History by excising History from its domain.1 Certainly, Segalen has not refined History out of existence in René Leys, which is at once eminently nostalgic in its orientation, and unable to completely suppress the historical realities that frame it. The novel postulates the central problematic of exoticism: historically, how to maintain the exotic project in an age of global imperialism, and aesthet­ ically, how to separate his vision from an exoticism that is completely defined by the colonial framework, the “ littérature coloniale” (“colonial literature”) propagated by popular novelists like Pierre Loti, Claude Farrère, Pierre Mille and Marius-Ary Leblond. Born in Brest in 1870, Segalen has ties with Tahiti and China, the two places that figure almost exclusively in his writings on exoticism, that extend beyond the purely imaginary. His voyages to Tahiti and China were often made in some kind of official capacity. He worked as a doctor and interpreter with the French Marines, organized archeological mis­ sions to China, and, at one point, even recruited Chinese workers for France.2In China, he taught medicine at the Imperial Medical College of Tientsin, and, between October 1912 and April 1913, was the private doctor for the son of Yuan Shih Kai, the president of the Chinese republic. 92 Su m m e r 1994 Q u a ch Segalen’s exoticism thus issues from a historical framework that effectively announces its passing on two levels—in the extensive imperial­ istic network that mediates even his own encounters with the “ other,” and in China’s embrace of Republicanism in favor of its unique dif­ ference, the fascinating myth of the emperors. This historical belatedness encompasses an aesthetic dimension. In his work, Segalen is highly aware that he is repeating the trajectory of those literary and artistic precursors who have forged a well-worn exotic path—Gauguin, Loti, Rimbaud, and especially Claudel, of whom Segalen wrote to his wife on his first trip to China: “ Il est évident que Claudel pèse actuellement beaucoup sur moi. Je ne m’en effraie pas. Il me faut des sortes de tremplins dont je m’évade ensuite” (Bouiller 191) (“ It is obvious that Claudel weighs heavily on me at the moment. I am not afraid. I need some sort of springboard from which I can later escape”). How he is to make a difference, to create new forms and new departures, in a way that turns his historical belatedness into an artistic advantage, or even an artistic possibility, is the concern that underwrites his exotic project. The result is a novel without a plot, emptied of the historical trap­ pings that would inevitably cast it within the pre-determined mould of popular exoticism generally associated with Empire. The story begins with the narrator’s admission of his failure to penetrate the mystery of the Chinese imperial palace—the “ Dedans” —which sets in motion a quest for the exotic “ other” that is also an internal journey into the self. The polarized reciprocity between self and “other” creates an impression of circularity that problematizes both the exotic quest and the exotic sub­ ject, whose quest for the “ other” invariably comes up against his own image. The double and triangular linkages between characters, as well as parallel situations...