Category Archives: Books

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 | 1 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 | 2 Comments

Audio recording of Foucault’s interview with Charles Ruas about Raymond Roussel now online

Posted on May 22, 2026 by stuartelden

The audio recording of Foucault’s interview with Charles Ruas about Raymond Roussel is now online. Foucault did this interview late in life, about one of his least-known books, translated into English as Death and the Labyrinth: The World of Raymond … Continue reading →

Posted in Michel Foucault, The Archaeology of Foucault, The Early Foucault | Leave a comment

Georges Dumézil, Geographer of the Russian World? (and some notes on the series in which it was supposed to appear)

Posted on May 17, 2026 by stuartelden

In 1932, the mythologist Georges Dumézil was advertised as having a forthcoming book entitled Le Monde Russe [The Russian World] for a new series called ‘Géographie pour tous’ [Geography for everyone]. The book never appeared. At the time Dumézil was teaching in … Continue reading →

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

Michel Foucault’s annotated theses on Madness and Kant – now available online

Posted on May 13, 2026 by stuartelden

In March last year I shared news of the discovery of typescript versions of Foucault’s two theses – what became the History of Madness and his introduction and translation of Kant’s Anthropology, annotated by Foucault – Emmanuel le Doeff, À … Continue reading →

Posted in Michel Foucault, The Early Foucault | 1 Comment

Books received – Simon, Macciocchi, Spinney, Kristeva, Leray, Mallory

Posted on May 9, 2026 by stuartelden

John K. Simon, Modern French Criticism; Maria-Antoinetta Macciocchi, Les femmes et leurs maîtres; Laura Spinney, Proto; Julia Kristeva, Dostoyevsky in the Face of Death; a special issue on Jean Leray; Ryan L. Allen, Adventures in the Archaic and J.P. Mallory, … Continue reading →

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

Lucien Gerschel bibliography (and other research resources)

Posted on May 5, 2026 by stuartelden

I’ve written about Lucien Gerschel in two posts in my ‘Sunday Histories‘ series – Lucien Gerschel, Georges Dumézil, William Shakespeare and the history of Coriolanus and The Tragic Death of Lucien Gerschel and his Posthumous Text on the Finnish Sampo. He was a student … Continue reading →

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

The Tragic Death of Lucien Gerschel and his Posthumous Text on the Finnish Sampo

Posted on April 26, 2026 by stuartelden

In a previous piece in this series, I discussed Georges Dumézil’s student and colleague Lucien Gerschel and their discussions of the Roman general Coriolanus. Gerschel had attended lectures by Dumézil at the École Pratique des Hautes Études shortly before the Second World War. … Continue reading →

Posted in Georges Dumézil, Lucien Gerschel, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Sunday Histories | 2 Comments