Category Archives: Georges Dumézil

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 | Leave a 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

Georges Bataille, Roger Caillois and the Question of Fascism

Posted on May 31, 2026 by stuartelden

Most of Georges Bataille’s earliest writings were literary, and between 1929 and the early 1930s he was the editor of Documents, an art and literary journal (scans are available on Gallica). Most of his articles there were included in the first … Continue reading →

Posted in Alberto Toscano, Friedrich Nietzsche, Georges Bataille, Georges Dumézil, Maurice Blanchot, Pierre Klossowski, Politics, Roger Caillois, Sunday Histories, Walter Benjamin | 1 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 | 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

Indo-European Thought in Twentieth-Century France update 32 – trying to improve a draft

Posted on April 20, 2026 by stuartelden

As I said in the last update, I went to the EUI in Florence at the beginning of February with a nearly complete draft of my manuscript on Indo-European Thought in Twentieth-Century France, and had the plan to leave at the … Continue reading →

Posted in Étienne Wolff, Emile Benveniste, Fernand Braudel, Georges Dumézil, Julia Kristeva, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Maurice Blanchot, Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes, Sunday Histories, Travel, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Two dedications from Georges Dumézil – to Alfred Ernoux and Luc Estang

Posted on April 8, 2026 by stuartelden

With only rare exceptions, I’ve not tended to buy second-hand books with a view to the edition or dedications. Generally, I’ve been getting hold of copies because of the content, and the relatively few times I’ve looked for a first … Continue reading →

Posted in Georges Bataille, Georges Dumézil, Henri Lefebvre, Michel Foucault, Sunday Histories, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Maurice Blanchot’s Politics and His War-Time Reviews of Georges Dumézil

Posted on April 5, 2026 by stuartelden

The philosopher, literary theorist and novelist Maurice Blanchot’s politics have come under periodic scrutiny. Leslie Hill describes the source of the controversy:  As early as 1931 and 1932, while starting out with the Journal des débats, Blanchot was writing political articles … Continue reading →

Posted in Albert Camus, Georges Bataille, Georges Dumézil, Jean-Paul Sartre, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Maurice Blanchot, Sunday Histories, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

The limited copies of the 1940 edition of Georges Dumézil’s Mitra-Varuna

Posted on March 22, 2026 by stuartelden

In 1943, the American librarian and Sanskrit scholar Horace Poleman wrote a review of Georges Dumézil’s 1940 book Mitra-Varuna: Essai sur deux représentations indo-européennes de la souveraineté for the Journal of the American Oriental Society. Interestingly, given the accusations made of Dumézil’s politics, Poleman … Continue reading →

Posted in Emile Benveniste, Georges Dumézil, Sunday Histories, Uncategorized | 2 Comments