Morskie i zamorskie podróże idei antropologii
The maritime and overseas journeys of the idea of anthropology

Summary/Abstract: This article discusses the very concept of anthropology, which was born at the end of 19th century, termed the “history of ideas”, and still exists in contemporary literary theory, especially as part of what is referred to as “spatial turn”. As with the similar concept proposed earlier by Ernst Curtius, it is focused on topics treated as the autonomous component of an anonymous, unpersonal, and in fact unhistorical discourse. On the contrary, the article tends to prove that travelling theories were always strongly connected with travelling theorists. In contrast, the author attempts to consider the interrelations between the two conceptions of anthropology: the philosophical and the linguistic, taking into account the material left in texts connected with the journey from Göteborg to New York by Roman Jakobson and Ernst Cassirer. The reconstruction of their possible discussions on board proves that the boundary between their projects, usually drawn in the history of culture, is weaker than could be supposed.

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