Asset Details
Do you wish to reserve the book?
Anthropological Landscapes in the Literature of the Age of Enlightenment
Hey, we have placed the reservation for you!
By the way, why not check out events that you can attend while you pick your title.
Oops! Something went wrong.
Looks like we were not able to place the reservation. Kindly try again later.
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
Anthropological Landscapes in the Literature of the Age of Enlightenment
Do you wish to request the book?
Anthropological Landscapes in the Literature of the Age of Enlightenment
Please be aware that the book you have requested cannot be checked out. If you would like to checkout this book, you can reserve another copy
We have requested the book for you!
Your request is successful and it will be processed during the Library working hours. Please check the status of your request in My Requests.
Oops! Something went wrong.
Looks like we were not able to place your request. Kindly try again later.
Journal Article
Anthropological Landscapes in the Literature of the Age of Enlightenment
2025
Overview
In the literature of the Enlightenment, landscapes played a crucial role. These did not present an end in themselves but served an imaginative clarification of the idea of man. Among the anthropological landscapes in eighteenth-century literature, the Polynesian island Tahiti stood out in particular, since it was imagined as an earthly paradise: Tahitians were said to be in a permanent state of perfect bliss guaranteed above all by free sexuality. Louis-Antoine de Bougainville declared the Tahitians to be the embodiment of the homme naturel in his travelogue entitled Voyage autour du monde par la frégate du roi La Boudeuse et la flûte L’Étoile en 1766, 1767, 1768, et 1769 (1771) as a means of social criticism. Tahiti thus moved to the center of the contemporary debate about the relationship between the state of nature and the civil society. The islanders’ natural way of life was imagined as a positive counter-image to depraved European civilizations. The article highlights which anthropological goals the literary imaginations of Tahiti served.
Publisher
Common Ground Research Networks
Subject
