Levi-Strauss, Anthropology, and Aesthetics
Author | : Boris Wiseman |
Publisher | : Cambridge University Press |
Total Pages | : 0 |
Release | : 2009-11-12 |
ISBN-10 | : 0521123011 |
ISBN-13 | : 9780521123013 |
Rating | : 4/5 (013 Downloads) |
Download or read book Levi-Strauss, Anthropology, and Aesthetics written by Boris Wiseman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2009-11-12 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a wide-ranging 2007 study of Claude Lévi-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 Lévi-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 Lévi-Strauss's aesthetic theory forms an integral part of his approach to Amerindian masks, body decoration and mythology. He reveals the significance of Lévi-Strauss's anthropological analysis of an 'untamed' mode of thinking (pensée 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. Lévi-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.