ith the help of the tools of poetics, this epistemological work first offers to explain how the particular “realism” of the geographers of the twentieth century can shed light on a number of epistemological prejudices of the “postvidalian” paradigm. Next it puts into perspective the movement of rejection of traditional geography that arose in the 70's, which can be described according to T. Kuhn's model of the “scientific revolutions ”. We are shown how, over a period of seventy years, ways of writing and of thinking were imposed on the “French School of Geography”, backed up by a position of realism that was largely intuitive, but useful for providing norms for legitimate practices. Since the years 1940-1950, some had perceived the weakness in the classical position, which, in the 60's, gave rise to a “malaise”, and to attempts at consolidating orthodoxy. On the other hand, the open crisis of this paradigm emerged later, following on a conflagration with a much wider impact (May 1968), which went a long way towards lifting inhibitions against criticism from within. In this context of the collective calling into question of realism, certain authors contributed to the formulation of an alternative position, which could be qualified as “constructivist ”. The Kuhnian model, which was useful in describing the classical situation of Geography, proved to be less relevant from the moment that Geography became truly part of the Social Sciences.
