"Icelanders have always been keenly aware of the cultural importance of language and the social power of texts; the language and literature have been the touchstones of Icelandic identity from the medieval Commonwealth to the modern nation-state. In this masterful and innovative study by anthropologist Gísli Pálsson, the preoccupation of Icelanders with language and texts serves not only as a highly productive point of departure for the anthropological exploration of Icelandic history, society, and culture, but also as a frame of reference for a trenchant critique of textual ideologies and practices in anthropology itself. The range of BThe Textual Life of the Savants/B - from the Sturlunga Saga to the Sexual Life of Savages, ni to novels, orientalism to the dative case - is truly remarkable."
1. Introduction; Part I From Life to Text; 2. The conventional metaphor of cultural translation; 3. The factual, the fictive and the fabulous: novel and ethnography; Part II Times, Lives and Medieval Texts; 4. Sagas, history, and social life; 5. The power of words and the context of witchcraft; Part III Lives, Texts and Modern Realities; 6. Fetishized language, symbolic capital, and social identity; 7. Beyond environmental Orientalism; 8. Conclusions: towards a theory of living discourse;