19th and 20th Century French Exoticism: Pierre Loti, Louis-Ferdinand Celine, Michel Leiris, and Simone Schwarz-Bart

by White, Robin Anita

This study of four 19th and 20th century colonial texts, as well as a later postcolonial novel exposes the cadres exotiques, or exotic frameworks, of literary exoticism. The thesis names and interprets the moods of and reactions to exoticism, including colonial exoticism, antiexoticism, and autoexoticism. Poetic and theoretical interpretations of exoticism, such as Victor Segalens Notion du Divers and Edouard Glissants Opacité and Poétique de la Relation challenge the prevalent assumptions that the literary practice was only an unfortunate byproduct of colonialism. The first chapter presents literary history and theoretical considerations relating to exoticism: Orientalism, nostalgia, colonial literary history, and a critical literature review. Chapter II explores Le Roman dun spahi (1881) and Les Trois dames de la Kasbah (1882) by Pierre Loti, two texts dating from Frances high colonial period of the late 19th century. Chapter III studies works and contexts of the 1930sLouis-Ferdinand Célines Voyage au bout de la nuit (1932) and Michel Leiriss LAfrique fantôme (1934). These modernist texts appeared with the decline of colonial exoticisms popularity. conclude with an analysis of Simone Schwarz-Barts Pluie et vent sur Télumée Miracle (1973), a postcolonial novel about the life of a Creole woman in the former French colony of Guadeloupe.