Category Archives: People

A 1970 French interdisciplinary seminar on structuralism, organised by Gilbert Gadoffre, André Lichnerowicz and François Perroux, and attended by Suzanne Bachelard, Pierre Bourdieu, Georges Canguilhem, Michel Foucault, André Martinet, Jacques Monod, Clémence Ramnoux, Michel Serres, Gilbert Simondon and René Thom

Posted on March 1, 2026 by stuartelden

An interdisciplinary seminar on structuralism was held in France in September 1970. Attended by a wide range of speakers, it was an interesting moment in the French reception of this trend in ‘French theory’. Back in October 2022 I posted a … Continue reading →

Posted in Clémence Ramnoux, Georges Canguilhem, Michel Foucault, Michel Serres, Pierre Bourdieu, Sunday Histories, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

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

Daniele Lorenzini ed. The Foucauldian Mind – Routledge, August 2026

Posted on February 23, 2026 by stuartelden

Daniele Lorenzini ed. The Foucauldian Mind – Routledge, August 2026 This is a major, and very expensive, reference work. I say a bit about my chapter, on Foucault and structuralism, here. The Routledge website says July, but Daniele says the … Continue reading →

Posted in Michel Foucault | 2 Comments

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

Trevor Pateman on Barthes as a teacher, and attending classes by Foucault, Derrida, Lévi-Strauss and Jakobson

Posted on February 18, 2026 by stuartelden

A very interesting short piece about spending the 1971-72 academic year in Paris – Trevor Pateman, “Roland Barthes: Writer, Intellectual, and also Professor”, Barthes Studies, 2025 (open access). It briefly mentions Foucault: But Barthes’ preferences were very similar to Foucault’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Claude Lévi-Strauss, Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan, Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes, Roman Jakobson | Leave a comment

Foucault’s 17 May 1979 Collège de France seminar with Paul Veyne published

Posted on February 17, 2026 by stuartelden

“Séminaire de Michel Foucault du 17 mai 1979 au Collège de France“, Raisons politiques 100, 2025, 15-52 This is very interesting – a seminar discussing Paul Veyne’s “Foucault révolutionne l’histoire”. A presentation by Veyne, response by Foucault and contributions by … Continue reading →

Posted in Michel Foucault, Paul Veyne, Uncategorized | Leave a 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

Chandler D. Rogers, Merleau-Ponty and the Human-Animal Relation: From Eros to Environmental Responsibility – Edinburgh University Press, January 2026

Posted on February 14, 2026 by stuartelden

Chandler D. Rogers, Merleau-Ponty and the Human-Animal Relation: From Eros to Environmental Responsibility – Edinburgh University Press, January 2026

Posted in Maurice Merleau-Ponty | Leave a comment

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

The Normativity of Marx’s Aristotelian-Hegelianism: An Interview with Michael Lazarus

Posted on February 10, 2026 by stuartelden

The Normativity of Marx’s Aristotelian-Hegelianism: An Interview with Michael Lazarus – JHI blog Michael Lazarus is a Lecturer in Political Theory in the Department of Political Economy at King’s College London. He previously served as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale … Continue reading →

Posted in Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Karl Marx, Uncategorized | Leave a comment