Category Archives: Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France

Indo-European Thought research resources updated – Benveniste, Saussure, Dumézil

Posted on February 25, 2026 by stuartelden

I’ve updated the list of English translations of Émile Benveniste’s work on this site to include a couple of articles. I’ve not shared many research resources from my Indo-European thought project, but there is a list of Ferdinand de Saussure’s notes … Continue reading →

Posted in Emile Benveniste, Ferdinand de Saussure, Georges Dumézil, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Michel Foucault, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

The French contributors to Herman Hirt’s 1936 Festschrift – Linguistics, Nationalism and Nazism

Posted on February 22, 2026 by stuartelden

In their important piece examining the stakes of the 1930s debate about Caucasian linguistics between Georges Dumézil and Prince Nikolai Trubetzkoy, Stefanos Geroulanos and Jamie Philips indicate that Dumézil was one of the contributors to a 1936 Festschrift for the … Continue reading →

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

Umberto Eco, Philosophers, Mythologists and Linguists

Posted on February 15, 2026 by stuartelden

19 February 2026 marks the 10th anniversary of the death of Umberto Eco. I only heard Eco speak once, at a book reading in October 1995 for The Island of the Day Before. Mario Vargas Llosa was the other scheduled speaker, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Claude Lévi-Strauss, Emile Benveniste, Georges Canguilhem, Georges Dumézil, Italo Calvino, Jacques Lacan, Louis Althusser, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes, Roman Jakobson, Sunday Histories, The Archaeology of Foucault, Umberto Eco, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Indo-European Thought in Twentieth-Century France update 31 – Paris archives, library problems, and working towards a complete draft

Posted on February 12, 2026 by stuartelden

The draft of the Mapping Indo-European Thought manuscript is slowly coming together. I’ve just begun a Fernand Braudel fellowship at the European University Institute in Florence. My plan was to come here with a complete draft, and to leave with a better … Continue reading →

Posted in Claude Lévi-Strauss, Clémence Ramnoux, Emile Benveniste, Felix Guattari, Georges Dumézil, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan, Julia Kristeva, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Marcel Detienne, Michel Foucault, Mircea Eliade, Roland Barthes, Sunday Histories, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Roland Barthes and the Question of Territory – Animals, Spaces and Sound

Posted on January 25, 2026 by stuartelden

Roland Barthes only taught at the Collège de France for a short period, from the 1976-77 academic year until shortly before his premature death in early 1980. I was drawn to his lecture courses there for my current work because he sometimes … Continue reading →

Posted in André Leroi-Gourhan, Boundaries, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Emile Benveniste, Felix Guattari, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Lacan, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Music, Noam Chomsky, Roland Barthes, Roman Jakobson, Sunday Histories, Territory, Theory | 2 Comments

Books received – Kristeva, Ryback, Sergent, Ruwet, Deleuze, Serres, Burrin

Posted on January 19, 2026 by stuartelden

Mostly bought second-hand, but including Michel Serres, Hermes III, sent by University of Minnesota Press, and Gilles Deleuze, Sur les lignes de vie. The one without a clear title on the spine is Jean-Claude Ruwet, Introduction to Ethology: The Biology … Continue reading →

Posted in Gilles Deleuze, Julia Kristeva, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Michel Serres | Leave a comment

My publications in 2025 – on Koyré, Foucault, Lefebvre and some reviews

Posted on December 31, 2025 by stuartelden

Most of this year was spent working on my very long manuscript Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth-Century France, which is coming together but has been hard work to reach this point. I have shared a few updates on the research and … Continue reading →

Posted in Adam David Morton, Alexandre Koyré, Emile Benveniste, Ernst Kantorowicz, Georges Dumézil, Henri Lefebvre, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Michel Foucault, Sunday Histories, Uncategorized, William Shakespeare | Leave a comment

Indo-European Thought in Twentieth-Century France update 30 – archive work in Paris, Bern and Cambridge, MA, and Benveniste’s library

Posted on November 12, 2025 by stuartelden

The formal end of the Leverhulme major research fellowship for the Indo-European thought project was at the end of September, but I have a no-cost extension until the end of January. This is invaluable, and is effectively to extend the grant for … Continue reading →

Posted in Étienne Wolff, Claude Lévi-Strauss, David Harvey, Emile Benveniste, Ernst Kantorowicz, Erwin Panofsky, Georges Bataille, Georges Canguilhem, Georges Dumézil, Jacques Derrida, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, Roman Jakobson, Sunday Histories, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Joseph Falaky Nagy review of the new edition of Georges Dumézil, Mitra-Varuna: An Essay on Two Indo-European Representations of Sovereignty (both review and book open access)

Posted on October 27, 2025 by stuartelden

Joseph Falaky Nagy generously reviews the new edition of Georges Dumézil, Mitra-Varuna: An Essay on Two Indo-European Representations of Sovereignty, trans. Derek Coltman, ed. Stuart Elden, from Hau Books in Journal of Folklore Research Reviews. Both the journal and the … Continue reading →

Posted in Georges Dumézil, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, My Publications | Leave a comment

The Andrea Rosenthal Memorial Lecture – “Émile Benveniste, the Second World War and the Making of the Vocabulary of Indo-European Institutions”, Brown University, 22 October 2025, 5.30pm

Posted on October 22, 2025 by stuartelden

The Andrea Rosenthal Memorial Lecture – “Émile Benveniste, the Second World War and the Making of the Vocabulary of Indo-European Institutions”, Brown University, 22 October 2025, 5.30pm The Comparative Literature Department cordially invites you to join us for Émile Benveniste, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Conferences, Emile Benveniste, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France | 1 Comment