Category Archives: Georges Dumézil

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. If both are true, then Renou (1896-1966) was arrested in 1940. But I’ve … 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 | Leave a comment

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 | 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