ABSTRACT

At a crucial moment in his autobiographical text, provocatively entitled Tristes Tropiques, Claude Levi-Strausswrites: "Time, in an unexpected way, has extended its isthmus between life and myself.'" This crucial moment at which "time" is given a distinctive location occurs in the last sentence of the first part under the heading "An End to Journeying" (La Fin des voyages). Since the body of the narrative begins where an end is announced, one might not expect an elaborate account of his travels in the remainder of the text. By situating a report about time at the place of juncture between the writing of the end and the beginning of the account of Levi-Strauss's journeys, the notion of time is thematized as neither the starting point nor the place of conclusion. Time, in this view, is inbetween. Time is in between the self and the life that the self narrates. Time is therefore situated in the place of narrative, at the conjuncture of a self and the life which it claims as its own. This time is what will be called the time of autobiography as it structures and delimits the autobiographical texruality of Tristes Tropiques.