ABSTRACT
The last third of the nineteenth century and the first third of the twentieth correspond with the height of Frances modern imperialist era, marked by the diffusion of colonialist culture among the general public of the metropole. This period saw the production of an abundant new literature concerning 'exotic' lands — much of it identified as 'litterature coloniale' — in which subversion of the dominant order of imperialism was rare. Les Immemorumx has been acclaimed as the first 'roman ethnographique', and it was republished by Jean Malaurie in the 'Terre humaine' collection normally devoted to ethnographic non-fiction, in 1956. While the Arioi incarnate the physical joy and strength Victor Segalen so admires, very varied characters appear to speak as avatars of the authorial voice. Paofai's repeated warnings of the fatal consequences for those who lose their cultural identity emphasize language as much as memory.
