Gone Primitive: Savage Intellects, Modern Lives [Paperback]

Marianna Torgovnick (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0226808327 | ISBN-13: 978-0226808321 | Publication Date: August 13, 1991

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

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In this interesting and unique study, the author looks at the West's appropriation of the images, styles, and ideas of primitive cultures for its own--and, she asserts, miscalculated--benefit. Examining the West's concept of the primitive as understood through such sources as Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan , the writings of Conrad and Lawrence, the theoretical work of Freud and Levi-Strauss, and the studies of a number of ethnographers/anthropologists, including Margaret Mead, she discovers an inaccurate, romanticized, often racist and sexist, and ultimately damaging series of ideas that have served to inform the West's concept of the primitive and to form the basis of its fascination. Although most of the author's suggestions for improving what she claims to be an unacceptable situation are so general and wide-ranging that they are practically cliches, the book provides a refreshing look at a topic that has not been previously examined in light of recent Western trends in art and culture.
- Jessica Grim, Univ. of California Lib., Berkeley
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 335 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (August 13, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226808327
• ISBN-13: 978-0226808321
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #93,351 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Teaching the Conflict, June 9, 2010

By 

T. Porges (Washington DC, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gone Primitive: Savage Intellects, Modern Lives (Paperback)

This is a good and useful book that attempts, in Gerald Graff's terms, to "teach the conflict," regarding the career of Primitivism as an aspect of Modernism. Recent battles over "primitive" have been particularly interesting, as they've been driven by ideological and class issues as well as the usual academic pettiness regarding vocabulary. The intensity with which the parties in this conflict grab at the imaginary high ground and wallop each other with boring prose and snotty asides is still interesting, because it's still happening. Like the _Bell Curve_ nonsense, it will not go away. But unlike that, and the "underclass" and social eugenics nonsense it serves, there is no good reason to pick a right and wrong side, here. So what I tend to look for is the interesting side. Who has something to say that doesn't bore me, and doesn't use boredom as a weapon? Torgovnick doesn't. The fight has gone on, and this book is no longer at the hot edge of it, but the disagreements continue and "scholarship" has not settled them. This book is a great place to look for a discussion of the issues. You might well argue with it, but that's largely what it's for.

12 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A second to that!, May 27, 2005

By 

B. Ball (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gone Primitive: Savage Intellects, Modern Lives (Paperback)

After reading the preceding review of Mariana Torgovnick's book, I have to say that it is refreshing to see my views shared by another scholar. I agree that contemporary academic scholarship seems to be horribly behind the times. If I may be so bold to read between the lines of Andrew's comments, I might add that this is certainly the problem with post-colonial studies today. Post-colonialism, often synonymous with "multicultural studies" in academia, is quickly becoming a field whose views are revealing its own bias - and one that often shares a bias with colonialism. We are living in a time where the "us/them" mentality - whether argued to the negative or positive -
lacks the ability to see the complexity of the real issue in cultural studies, not to mention the issue itself. All that said, I certainly do not argue for imperialism as the alternative to post-colonialism; there is, _has been_ a more progressive arena of cultural studies that has become the new standard (for scholars) and new direction of cultural studies altogether. For the sake of brevity, see Homi Bhabha's _Location of Culture_ for a description of this direction that rids us once and for all of this base (and inherently imperialist) "us/them" rhetoric.

4.0 out of 5 stars Gone Primitive, September 12, 2011

By 

Chaichapz - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gone Primitive: Savage Intellects, Modern Lives (Paperback)

A fascinating foray into the many representations of the primitive in
Western culture, from the perpetual Tarzan image to African masks to
D.H. Lawrence, Marianna Torgovnick moves effortlessly through
psychoanalysis, anthropology, popular culture, pornography and high
literary moments in history on a dazzling quest to explain the desires
and fears that fuel Western consumption of the idea "primitive."
I found this to be a highly readable and accessible book, particularly
the second essay "Taking Tarzan Seriously," which demands that we
understand the strategies and politics behind the Tarzan image. Part
feminist theory, part cultural archaeology, Gone Primitive is an
important read for anyone investigating issues that surround the
highly politicized act of "othering" and "consuming" minorities.