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Narracje o pewnej podróży
Narratives on a certain voyage

Author(s): Ewa Klekot
Subject(s): Anthropology
Published by: Instytut Sztuki Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: Warburg; anthropology of art; ethnography; Pueblo

Summary/Abstract: Presumably, if Aby Warburg had not lectured on 21 April 1923 in Kreuzlingen on Images from the Pueblo Territory in North America, the only writers interested in his trip in the South-West in 1895-1896 would have been his biographers. However, the fact that Warburg, hospitalized in Kreuzlingen sanatorium, decided that the first lecture he was going to deliver since his mental collapse in November 1918 would be based on his memories of the American trip, put the powerful interpretative machine of modern humanities into motion. Since then different narratives on his trip have appeared, based on different versions of his lecture (no one published during his life and with his consent), his diary, letters and photographs. However, the question why he had decided to delve in his American memories while preparing a lecture that was supposed to prove his mental stability remains open for speculations. One of the reasons of this choice may have been Warburg’s entanglement in his German identity, that actually had been a direct cause of his collapse only a month after the armistice of 1918.

  • Issue Year: 2011
  • Issue No: 02-03
  • Page Range: 60-64
  • Page Count: 5
  • Language: Polish