But Lévi-Strauss also attracted the attacks of illustrious critics, perhaps most notably from British anthropologist Edmund Leach and French deconstructionist philosopher Jacques Derrida.
Claude Gustave Lévi-Strauss was born 28 November 1908 in Brussels, Belgium, to Raymond Lévi-Strauss, a portrait painter, and Emma Lévi-Strauss (née Lévy). Both of his parents were French nationals and in 1909 the family returned to Paris, where they lived on Rue Poussin in the Sixteenth Arrondissement. The primary source of information about Lévi-Strauss's early life is his autobiographical narrative, Tristes tropiques (literally, "Sad Tropics," 1955). An abridged translation by John Russell--with chapters 14, 15, 16, and 39 omitted--was published under the title of A World on the Wane (1961). John Weightman and Doreen Weightman later prepared a complete translation, published in 1973 as Tristes Tropiques. In this book Lévi-Strauss recalls the atmosphere around his home as a bohemian and artistic one and credits his early interest in music to the heritage of his great-grandfather, the composer Isaac Strauss. In 1914, however, his father was conscripted to serve in World War I, and during the war Lévi-Strauss lived with his mother in the home of his maternal grandfather, Emile Lévy, chief rabbi of Versailles.
This is a free page. This page contains 176 words. This
biography contains 8,489 words (approx. 28 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Biography with our Claude Levi-Strauss Access Pass.
