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

Booknews

The unfinished frescoes by Antonio Pisanello in the Ducal Palace in Mantua have intrigued and puzzled art historians since their rediscovery in the 1960s. In this extensive discussion, Woods-Marsden (art history, UCLA) identifies the frescoes as a coherent cycle depicting an episode from the prose Lancelot, the 13th century French Arthurian romance. Dating the cycle c. 1447-48, she argues for Lodovico Gonzaga, ruler of Mantua, as commissioner, and suggests that the work documents this outstanding patron's early intentions and ambitions. Examining and crossing a range of fields (anthropology, psychology, literature, and art) and texts (photography, travel literature, television programs, and museum exhibitions), Torgovnick (English, Duke U.) shows how Western ideas of the primitive have served as a vehicle to control societies outside the West and to suppress women and minorities within it. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)