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The 'Other' - source of fear and fascination; emblem of difference demonized and romanticized. This pioneering work on otherness anticipates and informs much of the current postcolonial critique of colonial discourse. As such, this early attempt to theorize the exotic is a crucial reference point for current discussions of alterity, diversity, and ethnicity. Written over the course of fourteen years between 1904 and 1918, at the height of the age of imperialism, this work encompasses Segalen's attempts to define 'true Exoticism.' This concept, he hoped, would not only replace nineteenth-century notions of exoticism that he considered tawdry and romantic, but also redirect his contemporaries' propensity to reduce the exotic to the 'colonial.' His critique envisions a mechanism that appreciates cultural difference, which it posits as an aesthetic and ontological value, rather than assimilating it.

Aesthetics. --- Difference (Philosophy). --- Estética (filosofia) (ensaios). --- Literatura francesa.