Investigating Dark Rituals: The Detective as Anthropologist in Thomas Ligotti’s “The Last Feast of Harlequin”
Thomas Ligotti’s narrator in “The Last Feast of Harlequin” can be seen as an updated version of Lovecraft’s antiquarians whose exploration of folklore ironically leads to self-revelation. An anthropologist whose field of expertise is clown culture, he engages in fieldwork to investigate some little-...
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| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Langue: | Anglais |
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Journal of the Short Story in English
2024
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openedition-oai:revues.org:jsse_3939 en https://journals.openedition.org/jsse/3939 2024-04-02T02:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/w5jc https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Investigating Dark Rituals: The Detective as Anthropologist in Thomas Ligotti’s “The Last Feast of Harlequin” Journal of the Short Story in English Presses universitaires de Rennes info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/1969-6108 info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/0294-0442 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/jsse Boof-Vermesse, Isabelle Thomas Ligotti’s narrator in “The Last Feast of Harlequin” can be seen as an updated version of Lovecraft’s antiquarians whose exploration of folklore ironically leads to self-revelation. An anthropologist whose field of expertise is clown culture, he engages in fieldwork to investigate some little-known festival that features two types of clowns. In its attempt to account for this duality, the observer-participant methodology will prove uncannily adequate to unearth the dark rituals of the community. This article explores the disturbing proximity between anthropological research and criminal inquiry as rendered in hard-boiled fiction, as well as their parallel trajectories, whereby the evolution of the investigator from outsider to insider is delineated. It does so by first addressing the respective methodologies of anthropology and criminal investigation to see what the procedures have in common. It then turns to the hermeneutic impulse that drives detective and ethnographer, as they both seek to elucidate and rationalize enigmatic behavior. Le narrateur de Thomas Ligotti dans “The Last Feast of Harlequin” peut être vu comme une version modernisée des amateurs d’histoire locale que l’on trouve chez Lovecraft, et pour lesquels l’exploration du matériau folklorique conduit à la révélation de leur propre identité. Anthropologue spécialiste en études de clowns, il effectue une enquête de terrain pour étudier un obscur festival mettant en scène deux types de bouffons. En tentant de rendre compte de cette dualité, la méthodologie de l’observation-participation se montrera étrangement apte à mettre au jour les rituels sinistres de la communauté que scrute le narrateur. Cet article se propose d’explorer la troublante proximité entre la recherche anthropologique et l’enquête criminelle de la fiction hard-boiled ainsi que les trajectoires parallèles de leurs enquêteurs, qui passent du statut de profane à celui d’initié. Ce sont d’abord les méthodologies respectives de l’anthropologie et de l’investigation criminelle qui sont envisagées, afin de voir ce qu’elles ont en commun. On se tournera ensuite vers le désir herméneutique qui anime le détective et l’ethnographe, et qui les pousse tous deux à élucider et rationnaliser les comportements énigmatiques. |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| description |
Thomas Ligotti’s narrator in “The Last Feast of Harlequin” can be seen as an updated version of Lovecraft’s antiquarians whose exploration of folklore ironically leads to self-revelation. An anthropologist whose field of expertise is clown culture, he engages in fieldwork to investigate some little-known festival that features two types of clowns. In its attempt to account for this duality, the observer-participant methodology will prove uncannily adequate to unearth the dark rituals of the community. This article explores the disturbing proximity between anthropological research and criminal inquiry as rendered in hard-boiled fiction, as well as their parallel trajectories, whereby the evolution of the investigator from outsider to insider is delineated. It does so by first addressing the respective methodologies of anthropology and criminal investigation to see what the procedures have in common. It then turns to the hermeneutic impulse that drives detective and ethnographer, as they both seek to elucidate and rationalize enigmatic behavior. |
| author |
Boof-Vermesse, Isabelle |
| spellingShingle |
Boof-Vermesse, Isabelle Investigating Dark Rituals: The Detective as Anthropologist in Thomas Ligotti’s “The Last Feast of Harlequin” |
| author_facet |
Boof-Vermesse, Isabelle |
| author_sort |
Boof-Vermesse, Isabelle |
| title |
Investigating Dark Rituals: The Detective as Anthropologist in Thomas Ligotti’s “The Last Feast of Harlequin” |
| title_short |
Investigating Dark Rituals: The Detective as Anthropologist in Thomas Ligotti’s “The Last Feast of Harlequin” |
| title_full |
Investigating Dark Rituals: The Detective as Anthropologist in Thomas Ligotti’s “The Last Feast of Harlequin” |
| title_fullStr |
Investigating Dark Rituals: The Detective as Anthropologist in Thomas Ligotti’s “The Last Feast of Harlequin” |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Investigating Dark Rituals: The Detective as Anthropologist in Thomas Ligotti’s “The Last Feast of Harlequin” |
| title_sort |
investigating dark rituals: the detective as anthropologist in thomas ligotti’s “the last feast of harlequin” |
| publisher |
Journal of the Short Story in English |
| publishDate |
2024 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/jsse |
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https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/jsse/3939 |
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