Littérature Coloniale and The Failure of the Novel

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.