Norindr's radical revaluation of Indochina as a fictive and mythic structure expands the scope of geographic and political concerns into the broader speculative sphere of cultural identity. Indochina becomes for him a repository of images, a space whose commemorative and iconographic character brings together literary, filmic and architectural forms of cultural evidence. Remarkable for its lucidity and finesse, "Phantasmatic" "Indochina" constitutes one of the finest contributions to the field of post-colonial and cultural studies."--Dalia Judovitz, Emory University
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Indochina as FIction 1
1. Representing Indochina: The French Colonial Phantasmatic and the Exposition Coloniale Internationale de Paris 14
2. Unruly Natives: The Indochinese Problem 34
3. The "Surrealist" Counter-Exposition: La Vérité sur les Colonies 52
4. Indochina as "Rêves-Diurnes" and Male Fantasies: Re-Mapping André Malraux's La Voie royale 72
5. Geographic Romance: "Errances" and Memories in Marguerite Duras's Colonial Cities 107
6. Filmic Memorials and Colonial Blues: Indochina in Contemporary French CInema 13
Conclusion: Retracing the Legacy of "Indochina Adventures" 155
Notes 159
Works Cited 181
Index 199