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

Gone Primitive: Savage Intellects, Modern Lives

Literature & Fiction

Torgovnick, Marianna

History & Criticism

University of Chicago Press

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

Primitive Passions: Men, Women, and the Quest for Ecstasy

Marianna Torgovnick's Primitive Passions investigates Westerners' profound attraction to cultures that we call "primitive." Torgovnick explores the stories of Carl Jung, Isak Dinesen, D. H. Lawrence, and Georgia O'Keefe and the ways they used the primitive as a medium for soul-searching and personal fulfillment. Brilliantly linking literature, art, psychology, and cultural studies, Primitive Passions provides insight into our very notion of the exotic."Primitive Passions intends to provoke thought, not to tell you what you already know and for that reason alone it's extraordinary."—Walter Kendrick, New York Times Book Review"A powerfully argued, impassioned, and intelligent exploration of the 'primitive' in our culture and in ourselves. Like Marianna Torgovnick's previous work, it is certain to be much discussed and provocative."—Joyce Carol Oates"An inspiring effort to bring gender to bear on matters of race, ethnic identity, and spirituality."—Susan Gubar"A fascinating, wide-ranging and provocative tour of twentieth century Western culture."—Cynthia D. Schrager, Women's Review of Books

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

The recent dedication of the World War II memorial and the sixtieth-anniversary commemoration of D-Day remind us of the hold that World War II still has over America's sense of itself. But the selective process of memory has radically shaped our picture of the conflict. Why else, for instance, was a 1995 Smithsonian exhibition on Hiroshima that was to include photographs of the first atomic bomb victims, along with their testimonials, considered so controversial? And why do we so readily remember the civilian bombings of Britain but not those of Dresden, Hamburg, and Tokyo? Marianna Torgovnick argues that we have lived, since the end of World War II, under the power of a war complex—a set of repressed ideas and impulses that stems from our unresolved attitudes toward the technological acceleration of mass death. This complex has led to gaps and hesitations in public discourse about atrocities committed during the war itself. And it remains an enduring wartime consciousness, one most recently animated on September 11. Showing how different events from World War II became prominent in American cultural memory while others went forgotten or remain hidden in plain sight, The War Complex moves deftly from war films and historical works to television specials and popular magazines to define the image and influence of World War II in our time. Torgovnick also explores the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann, the emotional legacy of the Holocaust, and the treatment of World War II's missing history by writers such as W. G. Sebald to reveal the unease we feel at our dependence on those who hold the power of total war. Thinking anew, then, about how we account for war to each other and ourselves, Torgovnick ultimately, and movingly, shows how these anxieties and fears have prepared us to think about September 11 and our current war in Iraq.

The War Complex: World War II in Our Time

Marianna Torgovnick here argues that we have lived, since the end of World War II, under the power of a war complex—a set of repressed ideas and impulses that stems from our unresolved attitudes toward the technological acceleration of mass death. This complex has led to gaps and hesitations in public discourse about atrocities committed during the war itself. And it remains an enduring wartime consciousness, one most recently animated on September 11. Showing how different events from World War II became prominent in American cultural memory while others went forgotten or remain hidden in plain sight, The War Complex moves deftly from war films and historical works to television specials and popular magazines to define the image and influence of World War II in our time. Thinking anew about how we account for war to each other and ourselves, Torgovnick ultimately, and movingly, shows how these anxieties and fears have prepared us to think about September 11 and our current war in Iraq. “This book is wide-ranging, moving beyond American matters and authors. As a postmodernist critical approach, it succeeds in contextualizing American reactions to World War II by going deeper than national boundaries and impersonal narration.”—Eric Solomon, American Literature “A provoking and ethical book. . . . In an age when information is ephemeral, any book which recovers forgotten history is laudable.”—James Ervin, Rain Taxi

Beginning with early 20th-century figures--among them Carl Jung, Isak Dinesen, and Georgia O'Keeffe--who found in "the primitive" a medium for soul-searching and personal change, Torgovnivk probes how the return to the primitive has signaled a quest to transcend the limitations of the body in a variety of contemporary practices, from genital piercing to New Age rites to the mythopoetic men's movement. Illustrations. 272 pp. Author tour. 10,000 print.

KNOPF

Drawing on a wide range of nineteenth- and twentieth-century English, French, American, and Russian novels, Marianna Torgovnick demonstrates the variety and complexity of the process by which a work reaches an appropriate conclusion.Originally published in 1981.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Closure in the Novel (Princeton Legacy Library)

Princeton University Press

Marianna Torgovnick maintains that it is worthwhile to think about novels in terms of the visual arts--in part because major novelists like James, Lawrence, and Woolf did so, and did so fruitfully, as they were influenced by their perceptions of artistic movements.Originally published in 1985.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The Visual Arts, Pictorialism, and the Novel: James, Lawrence, and Woolf (Princeton Legacy Library)

Arts & Photography

Drawing on a wide range of nineteenth- and twentieth-century English, French, American, and Russian novels, Marianna Torgovnick demonstrates the variety and complexity of the process by which a work reaches an appropriate conclusion.
Originally published in 1981.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Torgovnick, Marianna. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Torgovnick, Marianna

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Torgovnick, Marianna. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Gone Primitive: Savage Intellects, Modern Lives

Gone Primitive: Savage Intellects, Modern Lives

Primitive Passions: Men, Women, and the Quest for Ecstasy

The War Complex: World War II in Our Time

The War Complex: World War II in Our Time

Primitive Passions: Men, Women, and the Quest for Ecstasy

Closure in the Novel (Princeton Legacy Library)

The Visual Arts, Pictorialism, and the Novel: James, Lawrence, and Woolf (Princeton Legacy Library)

The Visual Arts, Pictorialism, and the Novel: James, Lawrence, and Woolf (Princeton Legacy Library)

Closure in the Novel (Princeton Legacy Library)