Sex, Sailors and Colonies - Narratives of ambiguity in the works of Pierre Loti

This book focuses on the oeuvre of nineteenth-century author and naval captain Julien Viaud (1850-1923) who wrote under the pseudonym Pierre Loti. Considered a best-seller in his day and a distinguished naval figure, Loti's contribution to French naval and literary history is significant. This work suggests a new reading of Loti's literature that positions his texts within the critical theoretical paradigms of Postcolonialism and Queer Theory.
This study examines both Loti's fictional and non-fictional opus. It explores the dominant themes relayed throughout his oeuvre including his portrayal of exotic sexuality as being underpinned by a desire to elude articulation, his uncertain approach to colonialism given the constant shift between his identity as a colonising sailor and sympathising exoticist and Loti's own self-representation in both his fictional and non-fictional works. His constant re-invention of «Pierre Loti» as a persona in his writing creates a question about who Loti really is and how much of the man is represented in the so-called autobiographical text. These seemingly disparate themes of sexuality, colonialism and personal identity are all interrogated as posssible sites of ambiguity, thus revealing the general scope and complexity of Loti's work.

List of contents

Contents: Exotic desire and the subversion of the femme orientale as sexual heroine in the early fiction - Ambiguity and slippage as narrative in the search for an object of desire - Subliminal narratives of anti-colonialism in the fictional and non-fiction works - Identity in the Colonies: Transgressions in the Orient and the subversion of the Self.

Product details

• Authors: Hélène de Burgh, Hélène de Burgh
• Publisher: Peter Lang
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.01.2005
• EAN: 9783039106011
• ISBN: 978-3-0-3910601-1
• No. of pages: 324
• Dimensions: 150 mm x 17 mm x 225 mm
• Weight: 430 g
• Series: Europäische Hochschulschriften (Reihe 13): Französische Sprache und Literatur ) / European University Studies (Series 13): French Language and Literat; Europäische Hochschulschriften / European University Studies / Publications Universitaires Européenn; Europäische Hochschulschriften (Reihe 13): Französische Sprache und Literatur / French Language and Literature; Europäische Hochschulschriften (Reihe 13): Französische Sprache und Literatur / French Language and Literature; Europäische Hochschulschriften / European University Studies/Publications Universitaires Européenne
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > Romance linguistics / literary studies; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous