The ontological turn in anthropology and the future of comparative literature

Abstract

In this article the ontological turn in anthropology is discussed with a brief reading of “Cannibal Metaphysics”, by Eduardo Viveiros de Castro. The idea is that the theoretical problems formulated by post-colonial studies inside the domain of comparative literature could be informed and reshaped by these recent developments in anthropology. If Viveiros defends the ontological self-determination of peoples and their mytho-practical fields, literary studies could also try to acknowledge the self-determination of figural complexes, as well as the radical historical contingency of the mythic machines that assemble them. This articulation is made through the work of north-american literary critic Kenneth Burke.