Category Archives: Georges Dumézil

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 | Leave a 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 | 1 Comment

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 | 1 Comment

Walter Bruno Henning, Franz Altheim and the Politics of Reviews

Posted on March 8, 2026 by stuartelden

In 1949, the German born and naturalised British scholar Walter Bruno Henning wrote to the Iranian politician and diplomat Hassan Taqizadeh. In his letter, he shared his view of Franz Altheim’s Weltgeschichte Asiens im griechischen Zeitalter [World History of Asia in the Greek Era], … Continue reading →

Posted in Emile Benveniste, Georges Dumézil, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Roger Caillois, Sunday Histories | 2 Comments

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

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

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

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

My favourite academic books of 2025

Posted on January 1, 2026 by stuartelden

A list of academic books I liked published in 2025, or late 2024, or in paperback this year. Many of the books I read this year were published years ago; some of the 2025 ones I’ve bought or have been … Continue reading →

Posted in Alexandre Kojève, Books, Boundaries, Clémence Ramnoux, Ernst Kantorowicz, Erwin Panofsky, Gaston Bachelard, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Georges Bataille, Georges Canguilhem, Georges Dumézil, Gilles Deleuze, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michel Serres, Pierre Bourdieu, Theory, William Shakespeare | Leave a comment

My publications in 2025 – on Koyré, Foucault, Lefebvre and some reviews

Posted on December 31, 2025 by stuartelden

Most of this year was spent working on my very long manuscript Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth-Century France, which is coming together but has been hard work to reach this point. I have shared a few updates on the research and … Continue reading →

Posted in Adam David Morton, Alexandre Koyré, Emile Benveniste, Ernst Kantorowicz, Georges Dumézil, Henri Lefebvre, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Michel Foucault, Sunday Histories, Uncategorized, William Shakespeare | Leave a comment