Les Immémoriaux

by Victor Segalen

A vingt-cinq ans, Segalen, médecin de la Marine française, débarque à Tahiti. Le diagnostic s’impose à lui : confrontée à la venue des « hommes à la peau blême », aux maux et à la puissance de destruction dont l’Europe est porteuse, la culture maori se meurt. Dès lors, le poète s’emploi à recueillir les derniers et les plus éclatants témoignages de cette civilisation. Quand, ensuite, il les rassemble pour écrire Les Immémoriaux , c’est en essayant de ramener jusqu’à lui une prodigieuse série d’histoires. « Souffle-du-dieu ! Descends au milieu de nous ! Donne-nous de chasser les imposteurs et ceux qui ont volé son nom ! ». Paru en 1907, ce texte demeure irremplaçable.

Genres: France, Roman

224 pages, Pocket Book

First published January 1, 1907

About the author

Victor Segalen was a French naval doctor, ethnographer, archeologist, writer, poet, explorer, art-theorist, linguist and literary critic.

He was born in Brest. He studied naval medicine in Bordeaux. He traveled and lived in Polynesia (1903–1905) and China (1909–1914 and 1917). He died by accident in a forest in Huelgoat, France ('under mysterious circumstances' and reputedly with an open copy of Hamlet by his side).

In 1934, the French state inscribed his name on the walls of the Panthéon because of his sacrifice for his country during World War I.

He gave his name to the Victor Segalen Bordeaux 2 University of medicine, literature and social sciences in Bordeaux under the Academy of Bordeaux where he studied, and to the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of Brest where he was born.

From Wikipedia

Reviews

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite the satirical tone, the book manages to convey a distinctly anti-colonial sentiment and to treat the central historical tragedy with a surprisingly deft touch. Segalen's distance from his characters helps keep him from exoticizing them or indulging in cultural chauvinism, and allows the reader to believe in Térii's perspective. We see the travesty of one culture forcing another to adhere to its inappropriate societal norms, of foisting a foreign morality onto a people who were happier before its introduction. The picture that emerges is of a complex and richly storied civilization, destroyed by the fundamental failings inherent in human nature.

This review is an excerpt from my blog, Around the World in 2000 Books.

[Philippe Guglielmetti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intéressant, mais hélas pas facile de faire la part entre la réalité historique et la fiction.