THE PIYER LOTI HOUSE-MUSEUM IN ROCHFORT-SUR-MER | A Collection Of The Self Between Exoticism And Kitsch with Bertrand Bourgeois

This lecture will show how the French writer and world traveller Pierre Loti transformed his own house of Rochfort-sur-Mer into a very bizarre house-museum where exoticism, medievalism and kitsch interweave to create both a fascinating and disturbing mirror of Loti’s self. We also emphasise how Loti’s house-museum participates in the writer’s passion for disguise and wish to assimilate others cultures.

BERTRAND BOURGEOIS is a lecturer at the University of Melbourne and is an expert in house-museums, having written a book entitled Poétique de la maison-musée (1847-1898) L’Harmattan Paris (2009) focusing on real and fictional 19th century French house-museums.

The Piyere Loti house museum