Paper short abstract:

By taking participation, imagination and mimesis as those notions that can elucidate transgression as actual practice of boundary crossing, the argument is made that Jean Rouch’s practice of visualised fieldwork in 'Le maître fous' (1954) transgresses the boundaries of anthropological scholarship.

Paper long abstract:

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to address transgression as a dynamic and reflexive process of crossing the boundaries of aesthetical and ethical taboos. In this regard, I take participation, imagination and mimesis as those notions related to the process of transgression that can elucidate the actual practice of boundary crossing. I will argue that one has to conceive boundary crossing as a paradoxical process of entering inside, which formerly was an outside. I will contend that this can be done by bringing participation, imagination and mimesis as different forms of practice into view. My aim here is to address the paradoxes that are involved in the temporal dynamics of these forms of transgression and by way of doing so to propose the view that transgression has first and foremost to be conceived as a form of practice that generates the paradox of boundaries and creates its own internal dynamic. Moreover, the argument will be made that transgression not only crosses particular boundaries but also establishes them reflexively through the very act of transgression. Within this conceptual framework, I will address transgression and its related issues by focusing upon the anthropological fieldwork as practiced by Jean Rouch. I will take his two films 'Au pays des mages noir' (1947) and 'Le maître fous' (1954) and focus upon the presented visual material and their discursive context. My aim is to show how Rouch's practice of visualized fieldwork transgressed aesthetical and ethical boundaries of anthropological scholarship in terms of the techniques of participatory, imaginative and mimetic practice as his virtual device.