Lévi-Strauss révolutionnaire : Pour une critique structuraliste

Abstract

French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss kept his distance from the May ’68 events, saying twenty years later that they had “disgusted” him. Why such a rejection, coming from a former socialist? Rather than the jaded dismissal of an old reactionary, Lévi-Strauss’ reaction to May ’68 is better explained by the very tenets of structural anthropology, which rather than shying away from Marxism pushes its postulates further in an attempt to formulate a critical theory that is truly revolutionary. Instead of rehashing well-worn concepts, structuralism draws on Buddhism and indigenous worldviews to lay forth a non-dual, non-anthropocentric system of thought. Instead of glorifying man and its endlessly subjugating desires, Lévi-Strauss strives to replace the human in the broader network of interconnections of which we are but a link among others. Through works that are theoretical as much as practical, his brand of structuralism offers a pioneering way of comprehending reality which is time grounded in solid epistemological foundations. At a time when it is urgent to depart from the self-centeredness of which May ’68 was, after all, a symptomatic manifestation, a structuralist approach is more necessary, and more revolutionary, than ever.

Keywords:

• Anthropology
• structuralism
• Buddhism
• Marxism
• mythology
• non-dualism

Notes

1 Nichols, Brian. “The Buddhism of Claude Levi-Strauss.” The Centennial Review, vol. 39, no. 1, 1995, pp. 109–128.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Raphaël Piguet

Raphaël Piguet is a lecturer in French at Princeton University. He received his Ph.D. in French literature from the University of Geneva. His dissertation, which focused on the works of Claude Lévi-Strauss, is currently being turned into a book. He recently directed a special issue of the French journal Critique devoted to Éric Chevillard, and has published articles in journals such as Littérature, Viatica, and French Studies.