Category Archives: Books

Berfrois articles – a complete archive of my pieces for this much-missed site

Posted on September 17, 2025 by stuartelden

Between 2011 and 2022 I wrote eleven pieces for the much-missed Berfrois site. Most were reviews of recent books. Although the site closed to new submissions in 2022, I thought the archive would be preserved. I was therefore disappointed to … Continue reading →

Posted in Ernst Kantorowicz, Foucault's Last Decade, Foucault: The Birth of Power, Georges Dumézil, Immanuel Kant, Michel Foucault, Shakespearean Territories, The Archaeology of Foucault, The Early Foucault, Uncategorized, William Shakespeare | Leave a comment

Berfrois articles – an archive of my pieces for this much-missed site

Posted on August 26, 2025 by stuartelden

Between 2011 and 2022 I wrote eleven pieces for the much-missed Berfrois site. Most were reviews of recent books. Although the site closed to new submissions in 2022, I thought the archive would be preserved. I was therefore disappointed to … Continue reading →

Posted in Ernst Kantorowicz, Foucault's Last Decade, Foucault: The Birth of Power, Georges Dumézil, Immanuel Kant, Michel Foucault, Shakespearean Territories, The Archaeology of Foucault, The Early Foucault, Uncategorized, William Shakespeare | Leave a comment

Michel Foucault’s early English translations – indications from the archives of the Georges Borchardt literary agency, the memoirs of André Schiffrin and the Susan Sontag connection

Posted on August 24, 2025 by stuartelden

Now it is almost automatic: a new book by Foucault in French is translated within a couple of years. The Collège de France courses, the Vrin series of critical editions of lecture courses and now other material, the fourth volume … Continue reading →

Posted in Georges Dumézil, Michel Foucault, Sunday Histories, The Archaeology of Foucault, Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Indo-European Thought in Twentieth-Century France update 29: working on Benveniste’s Vocabulaire, Dumézil’s Bilan and other work

Posted on August 18, 2025 by stuartelden

I’ve been back in the UK for a few months, though I continue to work through the archival material I saw in the United States, some of which is in the form of notes, some photos of things, and a … Continue reading →

Posted in Claude Lévi-Strauss, Emile Benveniste, Ernst Kantorowicz, Georges Dumézil, Gillian Rose, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Michel Foucault, Roman Jakobson | 1 Comment

Lucien Gerschel, Georges Dumézil, William Shakespeare and the history of Coriolanus 

Posted on August 17, 2025 by stuartelden

One of Georges Dumézil’s most loyal students was Lucien Gerschel. He seems to have begun attending his classes at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in 1937-38, but certainly was there for the 1938-39 course which became Dumézil’s 1940 book Mitra-Varuna. … Continue reading →

Posted in Emile Benveniste, Georges Dumézil, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Shakespearean Territories, Sunday Histories, William Shakespeare | 1 Comment

Herman Lommel and the ancient Aryans – Hegel’s great-grandson, Saussure translator and his links to Benveniste, Dumézil and Wikander

Posted on August 3, 2025 by stuartelden

In Mitra-Varuna in 1940, Georges Dumézil mentions the equation of Ahura-Mazdāh and Varuna, which he says was a “hypothesis, long accepted without argument”, but which “has subsequently been hotly disputed – wrongly, in my belief”, and that “on this point I regret … Continue reading →

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

Georges Dumézil’s Mythe et épopée series and its partial English translations – updated

Posted on July 29, 2025 by stuartelden

I’ve updated the page on Georges Dumézil’s Mythe et épopée series and its partial English translations with the page references to the 1977 and 1982 notes translated in The Stakes of the Warrior and The Plight of the Sorcerer. The French has notes to … Continue reading →

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

Hadi Fakhoury ed., New Perspectives on Henry Corbin – Palgrave Macmillan, July 2025

Posted on July 28, 2025 by stuartelden

Hadi Fakhoury ed., New Perspectives on Henry Corbin – Palgrave Macmillan, July 2025 This collection brings together scholars from various fields to explore the work, life, and legacy of Henry Corbin (1903–1978), a towering figure in the modern study of … Continue reading →

Posted in Emile Benveniste, Georges Dumézil, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Martin Heidegger, Michel Foucault, Mircea Eliade | Leave a comment

Two Greek Words for Kings and the Question of Territory: Wanax, Basileus and Émile Benveniste’s Vocabulaire

Posted on July 13, 2025 by stuartelden

In his Vocabulaire, the Dictionary of Indo-European Concepts and Society, Émile Benveniste mentions some questions relating to spatiality and territory that I have briefly surveyed here. One question he raised I said was worthy of further attention. In his French text, and its English … Continue reading →

Posted in Emile Benveniste, Sunday Histories, Territory, The Birth of Territory | 3 Comments

Six Months of ‘Sunday Histories’ – weekly short essays on Progressive Geographies

Posted on June 30, 2025 by stuartelden

At the beginning of 2025 I decided to try to post a short essay each week on Progressive Geographies. I felt the blog had become too much of a noticeboard, sharing information about interesting books, talks or shorter pieces by … Continue reading →

Posted in Alexandre Kojève, Alexandre Koyré, Edward Said, Emile Benveniste, Erwin Panofsky, Henri Lefebvre, Jean Hyppolite, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Martin Heidegger, Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, Roman Jakobson, Sunday Histories, Territory, Uncategorized | 1 Comment