Description
In a wide-ranging 2007 study of Claude Levi-Strauss's aesthetic thought, Boris Wiseman demonstrates not only its centrality within his oeuvre but also the importance of Levi-Strauss for contemporary aesthetic enquiry. Reconstructing the internal logic of Levi-Strauss's thinking on aesthetics, and showing how anthropological and aesthetic ideas intertwine at the most elemental levels in the elaboration of his system of thought, Wiseman demonstrates that Levi-Strauss's aesthetic theory forms an integral part of his approach to Amerindian masks, body decoration and mythology. He reveals the significance of Levi-Strauss's anthropological analysis of an 'untamed' mode of thinking (pensee sauvage) at work in totemism, classification and myth-making for his conception of art and aesthetic experience. In this way, structural anthropology is shown to lead to ethnoaesthetics. Levi-Strauss, Anthropology and Aesthetics adopts a broad-ranging approach that combines the different perspectives of anthropology, philosophy, aesthetic theory and literary criticism into an unusual and imaginative whole.
A wide-ranging 2007 study of Claude Levi-Strauss's aesthetic thought.
About the Author
Boris Wiseman is Lecturer in French at the University of Durham.
Reviews
Review of the hardback: 'It is evident that there is great expertise in these pages, and even for the non-anthropologist, much material whose interest it would be hard to deny.' Modern Language Review
'Boris Wiseman, who was in charge of editing The Cambridge Companion to Levi-Strauss (2009), has reexamined this 'work' in terms of the relation between anthropology and aesthetics, with an admirable capacity to reappraise texts thanks to the use of examples and comparisons.' Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
'Wiseman brings aesthetics back into anthropology as a philosophical dimension that returns to the romantic project of reconciling the intellect and the senses. This allows him to read together texts that Levi-Strauss dedicated to art with proper production of anthropological science.' Frederic Keck, Journal of the Royal Astronomical Institute
Book Information
ISBN 9780521123013
Author Boris Wiseman
Format Paperback
Page Count 264
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 390g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 15mm
A wide-ranging 2007 study of Claude Levi-Strauss's aesthetic thought.
About the Author
Boris Wiseman is Lecturer in French at the University of Durham.
Reviews
Review of the hardback: 'It is evident that there is great expertise in these pages, and even for the non-anthropologist, much material whose interest it would be hard to deny.' Modern Language Review
'Boris Wiseman, who was in charge of editing The Cambridge Companion to Levi-Strauss (2009), has reexamined this 'work' in terms of the relation between anthropology and aesthetics, with an admirable capacity to reappraise texts thanks to the use of examples and comparisons.' Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
'Wiseman brings aesthetics back into anthropology as a philosophical dimension that returns to the romantic project of reconciling the intellect and the senses. This allows him to read together texts that Levi-Strauss dedicated to art with proper production of anthropological science.' Frederic Keck, Journal of the Royal Astronomical Institute
Book Information
ISBN 9780521123013
Author Boris Wiseman
Format Paperback
Page Count 264
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 390g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 15mm
