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Littérature Coloniale and The Failure of the Novel
- MLN
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 133, Number 4, September 2018 (French Issue)
- pp. 974-999
- 10.1353/mln.2018.0063
- Article
- Additional Information
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Abstract:
I first consider how Louis Cario and Charles Régismanset's 1911 L'Exotisme, la littérature coloniale and Marius-Ary Leblond's 1913 La France devant l'Europe and 1926 Après l'exotisme de Loti: Le Roman colonial instrumentalize littérature coloniale to criticize the novel genre. I then show why Victor Segalen's novel Les Immémoriaux—for Cario, Régismanset, and Leblond the only example of littérature coloniale—constitutes an even harsher critique of the genre. I conclude with an examination of the reception of Segalen's novel, arguing that rather than the formal innovation of Les Immémoriaux, it was the ideological climate that rendered its reception tepid.