Category Archives: People

Berfrois articles – an archive of my pieces for this much-missed site

Between 2011 and 2022 I wrote eleven pieces for the much-missed Berfrois site. Most were reviews of recent books. Although the site closed to new submissions in 2022, I thought the archive would be preserved. I was therefore disappointed to … Continue reading →

Posted in Ernst Kantorowicz, Foucault's Last Decade, Foucault: The Birth of Power, Georges Dumézil, Immanuel Kant, Michel Foucault, Shakespearean Territories, The Archaeology of Foucault, The Early Foucault, Uncategorized, William Shakespeare | Leave a comment

Michel Foucault’s early English translations – indications from the archives of the Georges Borchardt literary agency, the memoirs of André Schiffrin and the Susan Sontag connection

Now it is almost automatic: a new book by Foucault in French is translated within a couple of years. The Collège de France courses, the Vrin series of critical editions of lecture courses and now other material, the fourth volume … Continue reading →

Posted in Georges Dumézil, Michel Foucault, Roger Caillois, Sunday Histories, The Archaeology of Foucault, Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Gilles Deleuze, On Painting: Courses, March-June 1981, ed. David Lapoujade, trans. Charles J. Stivale – University of Minnesota Press, August 2025

Gilles Deleuze, On Painting: Courses, March-June 1981, ed. David Lapoujade, trans. Charles J. Stivale – University of Minnesota Press, August 2025 A translation of Gilles Deleuze, Sur la peinture – ed. David Lapoujade, Minuit, 2023 Update October 2025: New Books … Continue reading →

Posted in Gilles Deleuze, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Indo-European Thought in Twentieth-Century France update 29: working on Benveniste’s Vocabulaire, Dumézil’s Bilan and other work

I’ve been back in the UK for a few months, though I continue to work through the archival material I saw in the United States, some of which is in the form of notes, some photos of things, and a … Continue reading →

Posted in Claude Lévi-Strauss, Emile Benveniste, Ernst Kantorowicz, Georges Dumézil, Gillian Rose, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Michel Foucault, Roman Jakobson | 1 Comment

Lucien Gerschel, Georges Dumézil, William Shakespeare and the history of Coriolanus 

One of Georges Dumézil’s most loyal students was Lucien Gerschel. He seems to have begun attending his classes at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in 1937-38, but certainly was there for the 1938-39 course which became Dumézil’s 1940 book Mitra-Varuna. … Continue reading →

Posted in Emile Benveniste, Georges Dumézil, Lucien Gerschel, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Shakespearean Territories, Sunday Histories, William Shakespeare | 5 Comments

How Literary Agents Made Italian Publishing Transnational: An Interview with Anna Ferrando

How Literary Agents Made Italian Publishing Transnational: An Interview with Anna Ferrando – Journal of the History of Ideas blog with Rose Facchini Anna Ferrando is a researcher in Contemporary History at the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the … Continue reading →

Posted in Michel Foucault, Publishing, Sunday Histories, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Todd McGowan, The Cambridge Introduction to Jacques Lacan – Cambridge University Press, July 2025

Todd McGowan, The Cambridge Introduction to Jacques Lacan – Cambridge University Press, July 2025 Update September 2025: New Books discussion with Helena Vissing. Thanks to dmf for this link.

Posted in Jacques Lacan | Leave a comment

Michel Foucault, Histoire de la vérité – Cours à l’Université d’État de New York à Buffalo, mars et avril 1972 – eds. Henri-Paul Fruchaud and Orazio Irrera, Vrin, October 2025

Michel Foucault, Histoire de la vérité – Cours à l’Université d’État de New York à Buffalo, mars et avril 1972 – eds. Henri-Paul Fruchaud and Orazio Irrera, Vrin, October 2025 Comment s’est constituée, à travers le temps, la conception de … Continue reading →

Posted in Michel Foucault, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Ryan L. Allen, Adventures in the Archaic: Primitivism, Degrowth, and the French Social Sciences, 1945-1975 – University of Chicago Press, January 2026

Ryan L. Allen, Adventures in the Archaic: Primitivism, Degrowth, and the French Social Sciences, 1945-1975 – University of Chicago Press, January 2026 Examines how four intellectuals with ties to the French social sciences articulated a new primitivist sensibility between 1945 … Continue reading →

Posted in Georges Bataille, Henri Lefebvre, Mircea Eliade | Leave a comment

“Models of Ideological Analysis” and “Ideology: Marx and Lukacs” by Fredric Jameson, Opening Lectures of 1977 Institute on Culture & Society (audio)

“Models of Ideological Analysis” by Fredric Jameson, Opening Lecture of 1977 Institute on Culture & Society (audio recording) Remastered audio of Fredric Jamesons opening lecture at the 1977 Institute On Culture & Society sponsored by the Marxist Literary Group and … Continue reading →

Posted in Fredric Jameson, Uncategorized | Leave a comment