In I Swear I Saw This, Michael Taussig, a
major, albeit controversial, figure in Anglo-American anthropology, reveals the
heuristic function of the sketches and drawings he makes in his notebooks.
While this personal essay is a valuable contribution to reflection on field work
and the way in which different skills fit together, it ranges far beyond the scope
of ethnography. The Australian anthropologist develops some incisive reflections
here on the power of pictures to capture reality and things that seem to defy verbalization.
Taussig's writing, so unique in style and full of literary references, raises
equally profound questions about the relationship between language and truth
and about the fictional aspects inherent in all – even scientific – discourse.
Author: Michael Taussig
Translated from the English by Aurélie Bouvart, Anaël
Lejeune and Olivier Mignon
Original title: I Swear I Saw This: Drawings in
Fieldwork Notebooks, Namely
My Own, University of Chicago Press, 2011.
Published in 2019
In French
13 x 19 cm
256 pages
ISBN: 978-2-930667-20-1
EAN: 9782930667201
