Skip to main content

Gone Primitive

Savage Intellects, Modern Lives

In this acclaimed book, Torgovnick explores the obsessions,
fears, and longings that have produced Western views of the
primitive. Crossing an extraordinary range of fields
(anthropology, psychology, literature, art, and popular
culture), Gone Primitive will engage not just
specialists but anyone who has ever worn Native American
jewelry, thrilled to Indiana Jones, or considered buying an
African mask.

"A superb book; and—in a way that goes beyond what
being good as a book usually implies—it is a kind of gift to
its own culture, a guide to the perplexed. It is lucid,
usually fair, laced with a certain feminist mockery and
animated by some surprising sympathies."—Arthur C. Danto,
New York Times Book Review

"An impassioned exploration of the deep waters beneath Western primitivism. . . . Torgovnick’s readings are deliberately, rewardingly provocative."—Scott L. Malcomson, Voice Literary Supplement

335 pages | 1 color plate, 32 halftones | 6 x 9 | © 1990

Art: Art--General Studies

Culture Studies

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
1. Going Primitive
1. Defining the Primitive/Reimagining Modernity
2. Taking Tarzan Seriously
2. Making Primitive Objects High Art
3. "But Is It Art?"
4. The Politics of Roger Fry’s Vision and Design
5. The Many Obsessions of Michael Leiris
6. William Rubin and the Dynamics of Primitivism
3. Engendering the Primitive
7. Traveling with Conrad
8. "Oh, Mexico!": D.H. Lawrence’s The Plumed Serpent
4. Mapping the Site of Transcendental Homelessness
9. Adventures
10. Entering Freud’s Study
11. Remembering With Lévi-Strauss
5. Gone Primitive
12. Physicality
Epilogue: Past, Present, and Future
Notes
Reference List
Index

Be the first to know

Get the latest updates on new releases, special offers, and media highlights when you subscribe to our email lists!

Sign up here for updates about the Press