Le paysage et l’artifice en géographie

Abstract

This article proposes an historical look at the relationship between the landscape and culture through the writings of the geographer Max Sorre (1880-1962). He distinguished himself because of his early interest in the plant components of landscapes, he is also known for promoting a methodology based on the landscape in the discipline of geography. The article examines the different uses of this founding geographer’s notion of the landscape: perceived first of all as the physiognomy of a relationship between (material) civilisation and a “natural” milieu, it is then defined by a more anthropological approach, which to a certain degree dissolves the specificity of the notion. In so doing, we recreate certain scholarly configurations which shed light on these evolutions. Although some of the notions put forward are innovative, namely in a didactic context, Max Sorre abandons the definition of geography as a science of the landscape to the benefit of a human ecology. He does not develop a substantial theoretical foundation on this topic nor does he build truly landscape-based analyses in view of a synthetic approach.

Keywords

• Max Sorre
• history of geography
• landscape
• civilisation
• teaching