Literary anthropology : a new interdisciplinary approach to people, signs, and literature

The traditional gulf between the theory and practice of literature and the various areas subjoined under anthropology has hindered the development of some very fruitful perspectives in the realm of poetics and the general theory of literature (particularly in its narrative forms). Poyatos' initial idea of literary anthropology as the study of people and their cultural manifestations through their national literatures - without doubt the richest source of documentation of human life-styles and the most advanced form of our projection in time and space and of communicating with contemporary and future generations - has been enriched by the thoughts of a multi-cultural group of scholars from both anthropology and literature who at a first symposium on the subject attempted to define this area leaving the way open to many more research possibilities. LITERARY ANTHROPOLOGY A NEW INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO PEOPLE, SIGNS AND LITERATURE Title page Copyright page Dedication Acknowledgements Table of contents INTRODUCTION The genesis of literary anthropology The subject of literary anthropology as originally envisaged The contributions to this volume PART I. SIGNS, CULTURE, AND LITERATURE: TOWARD A THEORY OF LITERARY ANTHROPOLOGY LITERARY ANTHROPOLOGY: TOWARD A NEW INTERDISCIPLINARY AREA The subject of literary anthropology Poetic narrative and functional narrative, and indifferentation and behaviorism Nonverbal communication and realism The semiotic-communicative basic approach to literary anthropology The sign-typology model The semiotic research strategies The cultureme model and the diachronic and synchronic approach in literary anthropology Culturemes Synchronic approach Diachronic approach Somatic systems in literary anthropology Communication and description Kinesics Other somatic systems Man-animal relationships Objectual and environmental systems in literature Objectual, built, and modified environments The built and modified environments The natural environment The sensory interaction between people and their environment The intelligible cultural systems in literature Religion Society Political ideology and attitudes Folklore and the arts Cultural styles of interaction in literature The literary documentation of intersystem relationships NOTES REFERENCES LITERATURE AS A SOURCE FOR ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCH: THE CASE OF JAROSLAV HASEK'S GOOD SOLDIER SVEJK Introduction Literature is not a direct reflection of cultural phenomena How does all this apply to a specific text? The Novel's Syntagmatic Form. How Does it Signify? Language Conclusion REFERENCES LA THEORIE CULTURELLE ET LES ETUDES LITTERAIRES: POETIQUE ET ANTHROPOLOGIE LITTERAIRE NOTES REFERENCES PART II. NATIONAL NARRATIVES AND ETHNIC NARRATIVES DAVY CROCKETT AND MIKE FINK: AN INTERPRETATION OF CULTURAL CONTINUITY AND CHANGE Introduction Analysis of the syntagmatic axis Analysis of the paradigmatic axis Conclusion NOTES REFERENCES BUDDENBROOKS, THOMAS MANN, ANDNORTHGERMAN SOCIAL CLASS: AN APPLICATION OF LITERARY ANTHROPOLOGY Introduction A literary anthropology of Buddenbrooks Representation of social class in Buddenbrooks The sensible system: some examples of objectual communication. Furniture, artifacts, food, and the utilization of space. Conclusion The intelligible system: a Patrician view of social class and its depiction in Buddenbrooks Conclusions The use of linguistic markers in Buddenbrooks: A test for literary anthropology? Conclusions Retrospect Conclusion NOTE REFERENCES ETHNIC CULTURE TEXTS AS NARRATION Introduction Ethnicity and ethnic text Narrative text, culture text, and ethnic text The artistic sign The texts of Mary Molek and Ivan Molek Conclusion NOTES REFERENCES MYTH AND BRAZILIAN LITERATURE Myth and Brazilian literary tradition Indianism Anthropology Conclusions NOTES THE RECOVERED FRAGMENTS: ARCHEOLOGICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES IN EDITH WHARTON'S. THE AGE OF INNOCENCE NOTE REFERENCES PART III. LITERARY ANTHROPOLOGY OF THREE RURAL WORLDS THE BIBLE AND THE HUNGARIAN PEASANT TRADITION: TRANSFORMATIONAL PROCESSES OFBIBLICAL FOLK-NARRATIVES The biblical folk narratives Individuals, dramatis personae Activities Cultural systems interpreted on the basis of activities Cultural systems that can be interpreted on their own Conclusion NOTES REFERENCES THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF PAST, PRESENT AND FUTUREIN THE WRITTEN AND ORAL TEXTS OF THE OLD ORDER AMISH: AN ETHNO-SEMIOTIC APPROACH TO SOCIAL BELIEF Goals Assumptions concerning the object under investigation Assumptions concerning the method of investigation Historiographicexcursus: Who are the Old Order Amish? The social construction of the present: Umwelt vs. Mitwelt The social construction of the past: Vorwelt The social construction of the future: Folgewelt Summary: The OOA Model of Past, Present, and Future Re-editing the Vorwelt and the Folgewelt in the literary and the oral traditions,or: literary anthropology as a complement of 'oral' anthropology REFERENCES TRANSYLVANIAN PEOPLE AND TRANSYLVANIANLITERATURE: AN ATTEMPT AT THE LITERARY-ANTHROPOLOGICALANALYSIS OF TAMÁSI ÁRON'S, PAVEL DAN'S ANDERWIN WITTSTOCK'S SHORT STORIES Áron, Dan and Wittstock as representatives of three ethnic groups Geography and ethnic differences Nature and Soul Physical Realism Man-man: inter-ethnic relations Man and transcendence Conclusion NOTES PART IV. TWO GENRE APPROACHES TO LITERARY ANTHROPOLOGY AVANT-GARDE AUTOBIOGRAPHY: DECONSTRUCTING THE MODERNIST HABITAT Literary anthropology, habitare and autobiographical text Surveying and weaving Towards a microanalysis The morphology of the metropolis The Skyscraper and the metropolitan spirit. The morphology of the polis Valuta and not value reigns NOTES REFERENCES THE ANTHROPOLOGY IN/OF FICTION: NOVELS ABOUT VOYAGES Anthropology and literature Anthropology and form Anthropology and content The voyage Conclusion REFERENCES SYMPOSIUM ON LITERARY ANTHROPOLOGYTRANSCRIPT OF THE CLOSING DISCUSSION LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS NAME INDEX SUBJECT INDEX Edited By Fernando Poyatos. Papers Derived From The 11th International Congress Of Anthropological And Ethnological Sciences. Includes Bibliographies And Indexes.