Category Archives: Emile Benveniste

Marie-Louise Sjoestedt (1900-1940): an important scholar of Celtic languages and mythology

One of the challenges with my current project on Indo-European thought in France is how male-dominated it is. If you look at a photograph of the professors of the Collège de France in 1967, you can perhaps see why. It wasn’t much better at the … Continue reading

Posted in Antoine Meillet, Emile Benveniste, Georges Dumézil, Sunday Histories | 15 Comments

Benveniste and the Linguistic Circle of Prague

There are some good histories of the Linguistic Circle of Prague, which met in the years before the Second World War, and which included Russian scholars as well as ones from Czechoslovakia. Jindřich Toman’s The Magic of a Common Language is a particularly … Continue reading

Posted in Antoine Meillet, Emile Benveniste, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Roman Jakobson, Sunday Histories, Uncategorized | 11 Comments

Benveniste, Dumézil, Lejeune and the decipherment of Linear B

In April 1956, at Gif-sur-Yvette just outside of Paris, the first meeting of the International Colloquium on Mycenaean texts took place. The proceedings of the conference, edited by Michel Lejeune, were published later that year as Études mycéniennes: Actes du Colloque international sur … Continue reading

Posted in Emile Benveniste, Georges Dumézil, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Sunday Histories | 16 Comments

Books received – Foucault, Greimas, Lévi-Strauss, Derrida, Vernant, Lejeune

Most of these bought on a recent Paris trip, and a couple from online second-hand stores. Spectres of Marx is a new edition, including a debate with Étienne Balibar; Du même à l’autre is the most recent seminar volume, including … Continue reading

Posted in Claude Lévi-Strauss, Emile Benveniste, Georges Dumézil, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault | 1 Comment

Indo-European Thought in Twentieth-Century France update 25: Benveniste’s teaching, a talk at St Andrews, Tzvetan Todorov, Roman Jakobson, and some archival work in Paris and Oxford

I’m overdue an update on this project, but while I’ve been working hard, I haven’t felt there has been much to say until now. I’ve also had some further health problems, leading to another shorter stay in hospital and the … Continue reading

Posted in Alexandre Koyré, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Emile Benveniste, Georges Dumézil, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Michel Foucault, Roman Jakobson | 3 Comments

Émile Benveniste, Problèmes de linguistique générale – Problems in General Linguistics and other English translations – list updated

I’ve updated the page Émile Benveniste, Problèmes de linguistique générale – Problems in General Linguistics and other English translations Thanks to Jordan K. Skinner, the editor of the forthcoming new edition of Problems for some new information. A translation of a … Continue reading

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Émile Benveniste, Problèmes de linguistique générale – Problems in General Linguistics and other English translations

Émile Benveniste’s Problèmes de linguistique générale was published in two volumes in 1966 and 1974 by Gallimard, and later reprinted in the Tel series (volumes 1 and 2). The first volume brought together essays from 1939 to 1964, and was compiled … Continue reading

Posted in Bartolus of Sassoferrato, Emile Benveniste, Ferdinand de Saussure, Georges Dumézil, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

“Indo-European Thought at the Collège de France”, Social Anthropology Seminar, University of St Andrews, 29 November 2024 (online)

“Indo-European Thought at the Collège de France“, Social Anthropology Seminar, University of St Andrews, 29 November 2024, 2pm (online) On Friday I’ll be speaking about my current research.

Posted in Emile Benveniste, Georges Dumézil, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Indo-European Thought in Twentieth-Century France update 24: Emile Benveniste’s archives of teaching and publishing, the Festschrift, and the Alexandre Koyré side-project

Since the last update in September, I’ve continued working on the chapter of this project which looks at Benveniste and Dumézil’s parallel teaching careers at the Collège de France, through the 1950s and 1960s. This is the planned topic of an online Social … Continue reading

Posted in Alexandre Koyré, Emile Benveniste, Georges Canguilhem, Georges Dumézil, Jean Gottmann, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Travel, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Indo-European Thought in Twentieth-Century France update 23: Emile Benveniste and Georges Dumézil at the Collège de France, and an article on Alexandre Koyré

The chapter I’m currently working on for the Mapping Indo-European Thought project is a study of the two decades Benveniste and Dumézil were teaching in parallel at the Collège de France. I’ve been concentrating on Dumézil so far, but I plan to … Continue reading

Posted in Alexandre Koyré, Emile Benveniste, Georges Canguilhem, Georges Dumézil, Michel Foucault, Roman Jakobson, The Archaeology of Foucault, Uncategorized, William Shakespeare | 1 Comment