Exoticism: from theory to practice - Victor Segalen's Essai sur l'exotisme and Equipée

The aim of the project has been to prepare the first comprehensively critical edition of Essai sur I'extosime and Equipe'e, key works by the French author and traveller Victor Segalen (1878-1919). The editions are based on manuscript held at the Bibliothe'que national de France, and will replace the currently unannotated and (in the case of Essai) incomplete versions of the text available to scholars and other readers. Since these are two of the most regularly cited of segalen's text, the availability of fully annotated editions is essential for researchers in a range of disciplinary fields relating to exoticism, postcolonial theory and travel literature. The project has permitted the establishment of accurate versions of the text, reflecting the unfinished and even fragmentary form in which they were left of Segalen's death. The comprehensive critical apparatus produced not only serves to reflect variants and sources, but also permits elucidation of the authors' engagement with the intellectual culture of early twentieth-century France. The project engages more generally with the relationship of textual product of early twentieth-century colonial culture to more contemporary postcolonial issues. It thus contributes to the growing and increasing important fields of postcolonial studies and studies in travel writing, as well as to work in both genre studies and genetic criticism.