Category Archives: Georges Dumézil

Forty years since the death of Georges Dumézil and fifty since that of Émile Benveniste

Posted on October 11, 2026 by stuartelden

Today marks forty years since the death of Georges Dumézil (1898-1986); it was fifty years since the death of Émile Benveniste (1902-1976) a few days ago. Benveniste and Dumézil are the main focus of my very long manuscript Mapping Indo-European … Continue reading →

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

Georges Dumézil’s journalism and his 1924 account of the Tutankhamun discovery 

Posted on September 20, 2026 by stuartelden

In November 1922, the British archaeologist Howard Carter first opened the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor. In March 1924, the French comparative mythologist Georges Dumézil wrote a short newspaper piece about the Egyptian pharaoh. … Continue reading →

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

The Georges Dumézil-Michel Foucault correspondence – a chronological listing with archival locations

Posted on August 9, 2026 by stuartelden

Michel Foucault had a long friendship with the comparative mythologist and linguist Georges Dumézil. As well as providing invaluable support for Foucault’s career, Dumézil was also important to Foucault intellectually, as Didier Eribon was the first to discuss in detail, … Continue reading →

Posted in Georges Dumézil, Michel Foucault, Sunday Histories | 5 Comments

Marie-Louise Sjoestedt, Louis Renou and a 1940 arrest by the Germans

Posted on July 26, 2026 by stuartelden

I’ve written about Marie-Louise Sjoestedt (1900-1940), an important scholar of Celtic languages and mythology, briefly before in this series. From various accounts, there are two pieces of information about her. After the death of her first husband Michel Jonval in 1935, Sjoestedt married … Continue reading →

Posted in Antoine Meillet, Emile Benveniste, Georges Dumézil, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Sunday Histories, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

The Georges Dumézil-Mircea Eliade correspondence – a chronological listing with publication details or archive locations

Posted on July 19, 2026 by stuartelden

The mythologist Georges Dumézil and the historian of religions Mircea Eliade had a long-term correspondence and several of their letters have been published. They met during the Second World War, and when Eliade’s links to the Iron Guard meant he … Continue reading →

Posted in Georges Dumézil, Mircea Eliade, Sunday Histories, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Eighteen months of ‘Sunday Histories’

Posted on July 1, 2026 by stuartelden

I posted a short piece to this site every Sunday through 2025, and am now half-way through 2026. I don’t seem to be running out of ideas, usually with a few in progress at any one time, though some have … Continue reading →

Posted in Boris Porshnev, Emile Benveniste, Georges Dumézil, Giorgio Agamben, Lucien Gerschel, Michel Foucault, Mircea Eliade, Roman Jakobson, Sunday Histories, Umberto Eco, Vladimir Nabokov | 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

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 | 2 Comments

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