Tristes tropiques ou l’adieu au voyage ?

Abstract

In Claude Lévi-Strauss’ masterpiece Tristes Tropiques, the author flatly refuses the existence of any benefit to a change of scenery, which is to say travelling. More than just a travel book, the ethnographer is thus, tasked with writing a book about travelling, and formalising the method. If Tristes Tropiques is about “real travel”, it is a question of analysing these epistemocritical goals. In other words, what kind of insights can be developed by such a “travel narrative”? And why are the tropics so sad?

Keywords

• Claude Lévi-Strauss
• Tristes Tropiques
• ethnography
• travel writing
• otherness