Claude Lévi-Strauss, our contemporary

Claude Lévi-Strauss, our contemporary

Emmanuelle Loyer, in conversation with Emmanuelle Saada and Camille Robcis

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*In French with English translation

Emmanuelle Loyer recently published a widely acclaimed biography on French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, which has just been translated into English as Lévi-Strauss: A Biography. In this talk, she discusses how Lévi-Strauss took a critical perspective on the present, expressed not only in his structural anthropology but also in his acerbic critiques of many things we take as certainties in the modern world, including our belief in progress and even our modern conception of human rights, whereas he advocated for a more inclusive “rights of the living.” Lévi-Strauss’s “regard éloigné” or “view from afar” still yields today one of the sharpest critiques of present times and of the ills of modernity.

Emmanuelle Loyer is Professor of Contemporary History at Sciences Po Paris. Her books include Paris à New York, Intellectuels et artistes français en exil, 1940-1947 ; Mai 68 dans le texte; and Lévi-Strauss, for which she won the Prix Femina in 2015. It is being released in English translation as Lévi-Strauss: A Biography by Wiley in October 2018. Emmanuelle Saada is Professor of French and History at Columbia. Camille Robcis is Associate Professor of French and History at Columbia.

Event co-sponsored by the Columbia Maison Française and Alliance Program. Event made possible with support from the Cultural Services of the French Embassy.

From Columbia Maison Française