French Literature Reviews - 2026

V. Bucheli, Intertextualité exotique de Victor Segalen
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics

Valérie Bucheli

Intertextualité exotique de Victor Segalen

Droz, 2019.

ISBN-13978-2-600-05926-8

334 p.

39,00 CHF

OVERVIEW

The "Diverse": such is the emblem of the philosophy of otherness that Victor Segalen intended to formalize in his Essay on Exoticism, a work often dissociated from the rest of his literary production with its Sinocentric flavor, comprising novels (The Son of Heaven, René Leys), narratives (Equipée), and prose poems (Stelae).

Under the banner of "exotic intertextuality," this study aims to confront that speculative treatise with the abundance of quotations, nested citations, and pseudo-quotations that the writer weaves into his work. The discourse on cultural difference and the poetic relationships between texts then reveals a fundamental tension, causing the Segalenian subject to oscillate between an ideal of strict identity differentiation and a serene acceptance of the relation to the Other.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction. Intertextuality as a relation to otherness in the thought of Victor Segalen

Part One. The Poetics of Victor Segalen's Intertextuality: The Reflexive Discourse of the Notes on Exoticism
"Not one, oh! not one": an impracticable refusal of quotation
The flaws of allusion, a "veiled form"
The singular "Word-for-word transliteration"
The Clouard case: unacknowledged transliterations
The Gaultier case: distortions following the "Bovarysm formula"
A "generalizable" conception
Intertextual boundaries difficult to assign
From Essential Bovarysm to Essential Exoticism
The Oldenberg case: a dynamic "Hindu mechanism"
Spirit, letter, and form
Conclusion of the first part

Part Two. The Two Faces of Literary Works
A. The Persistence of the Exotic Thesis in Literature
Forms of literary impenetrability
The narrative structure of The Son of Heaven
Facets of irony in René Leys
"Master Wang" versus "Madame Wang"
Irony in Equipée: the ambiguities of the "pack-animal man"
The primary fantasy of Segalenian poetics: being original
An ambivalent use of Rimbaud's figure
The opening strophes of Tibet
The supreme moment of a paradox
The secondary fantasy of Segalenian poetics: emptying form of its content
The "chewed-over" phrases of Equipée
B. The Poetry of Intertextuality in Victor Segalen
The Son of Heaven: poetic tradition and personal identity
A renovation of the Book of Verses
The "Substitute" ("Tenant Lieu"): an intertextual rupture
Napoleonic references
Individual poems: "Shut up within oneself like a hedgehog..."
"When instruments and voices resound...": a narrative rumination
Note on the paradoxes of literature according to Sinocentric texts
Paintings: a "successive singular"
Odes: classical "order" and romantic "revolt"
Stelae: "standing, face to their faces"
Equipée and "traditional invention": reversal (1)
A reflexive "essay"
The presence of Montaigne: Segalen in motion
Note: the "Genius of the River" confronted with "taste that does not come from him"
The presence of Tao Yuanming: the manipulated quotation
Specularity of René Leys and The Son of Heaven: reversal and inversion (2)
Structural face-to-face: the imperial auscultation scenes
Narrative face-to-face: the Palace audiences
Thematic face-to-face: triumphal arches and wells
Inversion as sexual identity
Conclusion of the second part

Conclusion. Toward an ethics and aesthetics of Segalenian exoticism
Appendix: dossier on the manuscript of the Notes on Exoticism
A. Copy of the XIII manuscript essays
B. Folios of the Notes not reproduced in previous editions
Bibliography
Index of names

The study of intertextuality occupies a central place in modern literary criticism, addressing how texts incorporate, dialogue with, or transform prior writings and cultural discourses. In French literary studies, examining the weaving of citations and references within a larger oeuvre often sheds light on an author's broader intellectual commitments. Victor Segalen is well known for his reflections on alterity and the aesthetics of cultural difference, themes that shaped his novels, poetry, and theoretical fragments alike.

This volume investigates the relationship between Segalen's speculative treatise on exoticism and the extensive network of quotations, allusions, and nested citations found throughout his writings. By confronting his theoretical discourse with his creative production, the book highlights tensions surrounding cultural difference and identity differentiation. Readers interested in twentieth-century French literature, poetics, and theories of otherness may find this study particularly relevant to their inquiries.