The novel René Leys by Victor Segalen is best characterized as:

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The prompt asks us to characterize the novel René Leys by Victor Segalen, so we examine each option in turn.
Option a: 'The story of a talented European linguist in late-Qing Peking.' This description emphasizes a European protagonist and a linguistic focus within a historical Chinese setting, but René Leys is more centrally read as a meditation on colonial gaze and exoticism rather than simply a biographical sketch of a European linguist. The emphasis on East–West encounter and the colonial gaze makes this framing too narrow and potentially misleading.
Option b: 'European voyeurism and exoticization of China.' This view foregrounds how Western readers and writers often approach China through an orientalist lens, treating China as spectacle and Other. René Leys is frequently analyzed in literary criticism as engaging with or revealing these voyeuristic tendencies, making this characterization apt for many scholarly readings.
Option c: 'An autobiography of its author, Victor Segalen.' While Segalen himself wrote autobiographical and travel-influenced works, René Leys is generally interpreted through a fictional lens that problematizes authenticity and gaze rather than serving as a straightforward autobiography. The novel uses interwoven voices and metafictional techniques that complicate a simple autobiographical reading.
Option d: 'A novel that explores the orientalist fallacy.' This option overlaps with option b in focusing on orientalist themes; however, it narrows the lens to specifically critique the fallacy of orientalist thinking. While this is a plausible scholarly reading, it can be considered a subset of the broader characterization in option b, which addresses voyeurism and exoticization as a broader phenomenon rather than a singular fallacy.
In examining the choices, you can see that several options touch on orientalist themes, yet option b most directly captures the core critical reading of René Leys as engaging with European voyeurism and the exoticization of China, highlighting how the gaze and representation are central to the novel’s interpretation.

The novel René Leys by Victor Segalen is best characterized as:

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