Podróże współczesnego Guliwera – ślady utopii i dystonii w „Smutku tropików” C. Lévi-Straussa
Contemporary Gulliver's travels - traces of utopia and dystipia in "Tristes Tropiques" by C. Lévi-Strauss

Summary/Abstract: The article follows different levels, which the utopia in Tristes Tropiques can function on. The first one would be the level of the world presented, i.e. the world of the “wild” and foreign cultures that Lévi-Strauss met. Does Lévi-Strauss, comparing things Here and There, liken dreams of the man of the West with those of the “wild” man? Making the question clearer: do the cultures existing in Southern America and India (as well as on the pages of Lévi-Strauss’s book) have utopias? The second level is the one of the presentation, i.e. a question about constructing the exotic worlds of Tristes Tropiques by using particular conventions characteristic for utopias or dystopias. On the highest level the author asks whether the theory of Lévi-Strauss is utopian. Deliberations lead to the conclusion that today the Lévi-Strauss’s theory of utopia is out-of-date, but it played its role in the history, at first being a dream which must be realized, and later becoming a reality that must be escaped. There is only a trace, whose durability depends on how many people will decide to follow it along the sea of free existence and unlimited semiosis.

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