Essay on Exoticism

“Essay on Exoticism is useful reading for both cultural theorists or those with an interest in the politics of difference and diversity.” - Club Internet

“Essays on Exoticism is a most peculiar document. It was never finished, and never meant to be. . . . It is almost always interesting, because Segalen is interesting, and because he was trying to come to grips with something that still preoccupies many of us more than ever." - Ian Buruma , New York Review of Books

"[T]his new American translation is to be welcomed. English-language readers, and in particular those working in the field of postcolonialism, can now appreciate more accurately not only the uneven genesis and transformations of Segalen's exoticism over the fourteen years that the essay's fragments span, but also the essentially provisional nature of what Harry Harootunian, in a useful preface, dubs 'this great unfinished project' . . . . Essay on Exoticism . . . will allow a more widespread and more accurate assessment of this French-language writer's major contribution to twentieth-century understandings of exoticism." - Charles Forsdick, Journal of Romance Studies

“At a time when the moral battles for the ‘other’ have been waged, when the constructedness of identities has been demonstrated in extenso, it comes as a refreshing surprise to see Segalen struggle with the terminology of otherness and difference in the context of the term exoticism. His ruminations represent a fascinating and important intervention in present theoretical debates. For too long Segalen has been a secret among the initiate few; the time for broadcasting his ideas more widely is overdue.” - Andreas Michel, Indiana University

“It is exciting to see Segalen’s most comprehensive and influential theoretical text translated into English, particularly given its growing impact on colonial/postcolonial studies.” - Chris Bongie, College of William and Mary