Category Archives: Mircea Eliade

My favourite academic books of 2024

At the end of each year I’ve posted a list of academic books I liked. The criteria was that they were published in that year (or late the previous one), and that I read and liked them. Many of the … Continue reading

Posted in Claude Lévi-Strauss, Eduardo Mendieta, Fredric Jameson, Friedrich Nietzsche, Gillian Rose, Karl Marx, Michel Foucault, Mircea Eliade, Stefanos Geroulanos, Territory, Theory, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Indo-European Thought in Twentieth-Century France update 19: back to Dumézil, politics, and Benveniste in Persia and Afghanistan

Since the last update on this project, I have begun work on a chapter on Dumézil’s career from the late 1930s to the late 1940s. This is another fascinating period, partly because of the range of books he published – 14 in 11 … Continue reading

Posted in Alexandre Koyré, Carlo Ginzburg, Emile Benveniste, Ernst Kantorowicz, Georges Dumézil, Michel Foucault, Mircea Eliade, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Books received – Martin, Specter, Trubetzkoy, Hoffman, Strauss (and Kojève), Lincoln

A collection of essays on Emile Benveniste; Matthew Specter, Habermas: An Intellectual Biography; Nicolai Trubetzkoy, The Legacy of Genghis Khan and Other Essays on Russia’s Identity; Marcelo Hoffman’s Foucault in Brazil: Dictatorship, Resistance, and Solidarity; Leo Strauss, On Tyranny, which … Continue reading

Posted in Alexandre Kojève, Emile Benveniste, Jürgen Habermas, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Michel Foucault, Mircea Eliade | 1 Comment

Indo-European Thought in Twentieth-Century France update 18: further work on Benveniste and more archives in Paris

In the last update on this project, I talked about the Paris archival work I’d done in early February. There were a few loose ends of references when I got back from Paris, most of which I was able to resolve … Continue reading

Posted in Alexandre Kojève, Alexandre Koyré, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Emile Benveniste, Georges Bataille, Georges Dumézil, Henri Lefebvre, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Marcel Mauss, Michel Foucault, Mircea Eliade, Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Bruce Lincoln, Secrets, Lies, and Consequences: A Great Scholar’s Hidden Past and his Protégé’s Unsolved Murder – Oxford University Press, March 2024

Bruce Lincoln, Secrets, Lies, and Consequences: A Great Scholar’s Hidden Past and his Protégé’s Unsolved Murder – Oxford University Press, March 2024 The tale of a legendary scholar, an unsolved murder, and the mysterious documents that may connect themIn early … Continue reading

Posted in Mircea Eliade, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Georges Bataille correspondence – taking a look at the bound volumes at the Bibliothèque nationale de France

A lot of letters to and from Georges Bataille have been published (for example, here), but the two bound volumes of correspondence at the Bibliothèque nationale are still something to behold. Given how much of his library and correspondence has … Continue reading

Posted in Albert Camus, Alexandre Koyré, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Friedrich Nietzsche, Gaston Bachelard, Georges Bataille, Jacques Lacan, Karl Jaspers, Kostas Axelos, Maurice Blanchot, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Mircea Eliade, Pierre Klossowski, Roger Caillois, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Indo-European Thought in Twentieth-Century France update 13: work on Benveniste, Saussure and in UK archives, a seminar on the research, and a brief health update

In an earlier post here I briefly mentioned the medical issues that put me in hospital for three weeks in July. The operation was a success and I am making a good, though slow, recovery. I have been at home for a … Continue reading

Posted in Emile Benveniste, Ernst Kantorowicz, Ferdinand de Saussure, Georges Dumézil, Mircea Eliade, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

“Indo-European Thought in Post-War France“, Warwick Seminar for Interdisciplinary French Studies, 31 May 2023 (video)

My talk to the Warwick Seminar for Interdisciplinary French Studies was recorded and is available online – “Indo-European Thought in Post-War France“ I begin with two stories – one about the Mission Paul Pelliot and its importance to the early … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Emile Benveniste, Georges Dumézil, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Mircea Eliade, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

‘Indo-European Thought in Post-War France’, Warwick Seminar for Interdisciplinary French Studies, 31 May 2023, 4pm

Update: the recording is available here For anyone interested in my new project, I’ll be speaking about some of it in an online seminar today at 4pm: ‘Indo-European Thought in Post-War France’, Warwick Seminar for Interdisciplinary French Studies

Posted in Emile Benveniste, Georges Dumézil, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Mircea Eliade | Leave a comment

Books received – Koyré, Foucault, Eliade & Pettazzoni, Axelos, Evans

Alexandre Koyré’s Introduction à la lecture de Platon; the Eliade-Pettazzoni correspondence and Richard Evans’s biography of Eric Hobsbawm, all bought second-hand, along with Kostas Axelos, The Game of the World and Michel Foucault, Le discours philosophique, kindly sent by the … Continue reading

Posted in Alexandre Koyré, Eric Hobsbawm, Kostas Axelos, Michel Foucault, Mircea Eliade | 2 Comments