Category Archives: Books

Georges Dumézil’s journalism and his 1924 account of the Tutankhamun discovery 

Posted on September 20, 2026 by stuartelden

In November 1922, the British archaeologist Howard Carter first opened the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor. In March 1924, the French comparative mythologist Georges Dumézil wrote a short newspaper piece about the Egyptian pharaoh. … Continue reading →

Posted in Didier Eribon, Georges Dumézil, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Sunday Histories | Leave a comment

The Experience of the Demonic and Its Waning: Foucault, Madness and Witchcraft

Posted on September 6, 2026 by stuartelden

Throughout his career Foucault made many promises of books he planned to write, only some of which were fulfilled. In History of Madness in 1961 he said: We will show in another study how the experience of the demonic and its waning … Continue reading →

Posted in Colin Gordon, Fernand Braudel, Foucault: The Birth of Power, Michel Foucault, Sunday Histories, The Archaeology of Foucault | 3 Comments

Suzanne Bachelard – between Husserl’s Logic and the Philosophy of Science 

Posted on August 16, 2026 by stuartelden

Suzanne Bachelard (18 October 1919-3 November 2007) was the daughter of Gaston Bachelard. Her mother died in June 1920 when she was still an infant, and she was brought up by her father. She would sit in on his teaching … Continue reading →

Posted in Alexandre Koyré, Canguilhem (book), Edmund Husserl, Gaston Bachelard, Georges Canguilhem, Jacques Derrida, Jean Cavaillès, Jean Hyppolite, Michel Foucault, Sunday Histories, Suzanne Bachelard | Leave a comment

Marie-Louise Sjoestedt, Louis Renou and a 1940 arrest by the Germans

Posted on July 26, 2026 by stuartelden

I’ve written about Marie-Louise Sjoestedt (1900-1940), an important scholar of Celtic languages and mythology, briefly before in this series. From various accounts, there are two pieces of information about her. If both are true, then Renou (1896-1966) was arrested in 1940. But I’ve … Continue reading →

Posted in Antoine Meillet, Emile Benveniste, Georges Dumézil, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Sunday Histories, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Pascale Drouet, Shakespeare and the Denial of Territory: Banishment, Abuse of Power and Strategies of Resistance – Manchester University Press, November 2021

Posted on July 14, 2026 by stuartelden

Pascale Drouet, Shakespeare and the Denial of Territory: Banishment, Abuse of Power and Strategies of Resistance – Manchester University Press, November 2021 I’m slow to notice this one, but looks interesting. My own Shakespearean Territories discusses related issues. This book … Continue reading →

Posted in Felix Guattari, Gilles Deleuze, Shakespearean Territories, Uncategorized, William Shakespeare | Leave a comment

Introducing Richard Wilson’s Shakespeare’s Fascist Followers – text of a talk at Garrick’s Temple to Shakespeare, 27 June 2026

Posted on July 5, 2026 by stuartelden

These are my opening remarks to a roundtable celebrating Richard Wilson’s book Shakespeare’s Fascist Followers: Modern Friends, at an event on Shakespeare and British Inter-war Philosophy (1918-1939) held at Garrick’s Temple to Shakespeare on 27 June 2026. A few lines … Continue reading →

Posted in Alexandre Kojève, Carl Schmitt, Carlo Ginzburg, Ernst Kantorowicz, Georges Bataille, Hannah Arendt, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Roger Caillois, Sunday Histories, T.S. Eliot, Uncategorized, Walter Benjamin, William Shakespeare | Leave a comment

Did Émile Benveniste try to escape to the USA from Lyon in the Second World War?

Posted on June 28, 2026 by stuartelden

As part of my research on Georges Dumézil and Émile Benveniste, I’ve been tracing their quite different experiences in the Second World War. Both lost their teaching positions under Vichy, although for very different reasons – Dumézil because he had once … Continue reading →

Posted in Claude Lévi-Strauss, Emile Benveniste, Jean de Menasce, Jean Wahl, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Roman Jakobson, Sunday Histories, T.S. Eliot | Leave a comment

Initial Thoughts on Jason Ānanda Josephson Storm’s The Genealogy of Genealogy: Nietzsche, Foucault, and the Coils of Critical History

Posted on June 21, 2026 by stuartelden

There was a lot I learned, and much I liked, about Jason Ānanda Josephson Storm’s recently published The Genealogy of Genealogy: Nietzsche, Foucault, and the Coils of Critical History (University of Chicago Press, 2026). There was also a great deal which has … Continue reading →

Posted in Friedrich Nietzsche, Georges Bataille, Georges Dumézil, Gilles Deleuze, Jean Wahl, Michel Foucault, Sunday Histories, The Archaeology of Foucault, The Early Foucault, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Roger D. Woodard ed. The Cambridge World History of Mythology and Mythography – Cambridge University Press, two volumes, February 2027

Posted on June 16, 2026 by stuartelden

Roger D. Woodard ed. The Cambridge World History of Mythology and Mythography – Cambridge University Press, two volumes, February 2027: volume 1; volume 2 The Cambridge History of Mythology and Mythography offers a comprehensive overview of the history, theory, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Emile Benveniste, Georges Dumézil, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Jean de Menasce and Émile Benveniste as translators of T.S. Eliot

Posted on June 14, 2026 by stuartelden

The importance of Jean de Menasce to the life of Émile Benveniste has long been known. A former student of Benveniste in his Iranian courses at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, Menasce later taught at the University of Fribourg, … Continue reading →

Posted in Emile Benveniste, Henri Lefebvre, Jean de Menasce, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Sunday Histories, T.S. Eliot | 1 Comment