“History of the Misunderstood Anthropologist” Ethnographic Investigation and Scientific Vocation According to Georges Perec

This article focuses on the character of Marcel Appenzzell, the “misunderstood anthropologist” of La Vie mode d’emploi. It considers firstly the sources used by Perec to develop this portrait (namely, the commentary on an ethnographic documentary written by Perec himself; texts by Leiris and Lévi-Strauss). It also questions the way in which the narrative features missing pieces (the native testimony, in particular) and proposes through the means of fiction a critic of the ethnographic fieldwork.