Boombana
Publications

A Lapse of Memory

by Victor SEGALEN

transl. by Rosemary ARNOUX, Univ. of Auckland

Brisbane: Boombana Publications, 1995.
(287 pages, 200x130 mm, PB, ISBN 0646246909)

The first translation into English of Victor Segalen's Les Immémoriaux, which depicts the demise of the ancient Tahitian culture following the first contacts with European explorers and missionaries. Based on extensive documentation, it is now seen as one of the earliest and most earnest ethnographic novels. It is also a text of undeniable literary quality and evocative power, which steers well clear of cheap exoticism, and cannot fail to appeal to readers who are keen on experiencing another vision of life.

Segalen is not only a writer of his time, but of our time and times to come. The concerns he addresses in Les Immémoriaux remain relevant to society at both a real and a symbolic level. Indeed, the book clearly speaks to the post-modern mood of disenchantment and questioning of Western cultural values of truth and progress. The particular problematics of culture implied here resonates with aspects of contemporary philosophy and literary theory, as it did with the typical French alienation of late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

This book claims a place in literary history as an artistic achievement, a stimulating exploration of the concept of "otherness" and a reflection on the fatalities of cross-cultural encounter. It is of great interest to all readers concerned with the fate of indigenous cultures as well as to specialists in the fields of anthropology, religions, the history of the Pacific and to amateurs of fine literature.

See review article by Danny Yee

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Last updated 25/2/07