Category Archives: Books

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

Posted on October 31, 2022 by stuartelden

Towards the end of his career, Georges Dumézil began to produce some works summarising the results of his decades of research. The most important was the Mythe et épopée series published by Gallimard in three volumes in 1968, 1971 and 1973.  Each … Continue reading →

Posted in Georges Dumézil, Indo-European Thought | Leave a comment

Georges Dumézil’s The Destiny of the Warrior – a work in progress

Posted on October 24, 2022 by stuartelden

Mitra-Varuna is the best place to go, in English, for Dumézil’s views on the first function of sovereignty, and its twofold nature: the first judicial and worldly, the second divine and supernatural. In French, Les Dieux souverains des Indo-Européens (Gallimard 1977) updates and … Continue reading →

Posted in Georges Dumézil, Indo-European Thought | Leave a comment

Two reviews of The Early Foucault (Polity, 2021) by Colin Koopman and Jasper Friedrich – and a note on Heidegger

Posted on October 15, 2022 by stuartelden

There are two recent reviews of The Early Foucault by Colin Koopman at The Review of Politics (requires subscription) and Jasper Friedrich at Foucault Studies (open access). They are generous and appreciative, though not uncritical. I’m grateful to both for taking the time to … Continue reading →

Posted in Canguilhem (book), Foucault's Last Decade, Foucault: The Birth of Power, Friedrich Nietzsche, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Georges Canguilhem, Gilles Deleuze, Immanuel Kant, Ludwig Binswanger, Mapping the Present, Martin Heidegger, Michel Foucault, The Archaeology of Foucault, The Early Foucault | 2 Comments

Indo-European thought project update 6: beginning the Leverhulme fellowship, my self-imposed guidelines for writing and time-discipline, and some summer cycling and writing

Posted on October 7, 2022 by stuartelden

I’m in the incredibly privileged position of beginning a Leverhulme major research fellowship this week, to work on the Indo-European thought in Twentieth-Century France project. As a note to myself, I’m going to try to work with the guidelines I set myself seven years … Continue reading →

Posted in Cycling, Foucault: The Birth of Power, Georges Dumézil, Indo-European Thought, Michel Foucault, Shakespearean Territories, Uncategorized, William Shakespeare, Writing | Leave a comment

Georges Dumézil, Mitra-Varuna: An Essay on Two Indo-European Representations of Sovereignty, trans. Derek Coltman, ed. Stuart Elden – HAU books, June 2023

Posted on October 3, 2022 by stuartelden

Georges Dumézil, Mitra-Varuna: An Essay on Two Indo-European Representations of Sovereignty, trans. Derek Coltman, ed. Stuart Elden – HAU books, June 2023. Pre-order details at the University of Chicago Press site, who distribute HAU books. A classic text that develops one … Continue reading →

Posted in Georges Dumézil, Indo-European Thought, Michel Foucault, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Indo-European Thought project update 5: Reading Saussure

Posted on August 25, 2022 by stuartelden

With the proofs and index of The Archaeology of Foucault complete, the next thing will hopefully be receiving an advance copy toward the end of the year. The new edition of Dumézil’s Mitra-Varuna is now in production with HAU books, and should be out … Continue reading →

Posted in Emile Benveniste, Ferdinand de Saussure, Georges Dumézil, Indo-European Thought, Michel Foucault, The Archaeology of Foucault, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Foucault’s 1983 seminar at Berkeley – the two cowboy hat photographs

Posted on August 25, 2022 by stuartelden

Back in 2015, when I was doing the research for Foucault’s Last Decade, I tried to identify and contact the people who had been part of Foucault’s 1983 seminar at Berkeley. The famous photograph appeared in Didier Eribon’s biography, with … Continue reading →

Posted in Foucault's Last Decade, Michel Foucault, Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Books received – Kuper, Ojakangas, Drews, Glendinning, Cassirer

Posted on August 12, 2022 by stuartelden

Books in recompense for review work, including the new translation of Ernst Cassirer’s The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms, and Simon Glendinning’s Europe: A Philosophical History.

Posted in Edward Casey, Indo-European Thought, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Books received – Detienne, Benveniste, Olender, Dumézil, Rampling, Katz

Posted on August 11, 2022 by stuartelden

Some second-hand books for the Indo-European thought project, along with Jennifer M. Rampling, The Experimental Fire: Inventing English Alchemy, 1300-1700, in recompense for review work, and Irit Katz, The Common Camp: Architecture of Power and Resistance in Israel-Palestine, which I … Continue reading →

Posted in Emile Benveniste, Georges Dumézil, Indo-European Thought | 1 Comment

Indo-European Thought project update 4: Editing and Introducing Dumézil’s Mitra-Varuna, and working with Foucault’s Lecture Courses 

Posted on July 11, 2022 by stuartelden

Editing Georges Dumézil’s Mitra-Varuna has taken far longer than I expected, but I think the text of the book is now complete. The major challenge, as I’ve indicated before, was the process of checking, completing and sometimes correcting Dumézil’s references. I’ve been mainly … Continue reading →

Posted in Georges Dumézil, Indo-European Thought, Michel Foucault, The Archaeology of Foucault, William Shakespeare | 6 Comments