Category Archives: Sunday Histories

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 | Leave a comment

No, not that Henri Lefebvre – The Missing Pieces

Posted on September 13, 2026 by stuartelden

I’ve mentioned this before, but the Henri Lefebvre who wrote Les unités perdues (2004, 2011), translated by David L. Sweet as The Missing Pieces (2014), is not the Henri Lefebvre who wrote The Production of Space and The Critique of Everyday Life, among many other works.  For one thing, … Continue reading →

Posted in Adam David Morton, Henri Lefebvre, Sunday Histories | 1 Comment

The Experience of the Demonic and Its Waning: Foucault, Madness and Witchcraft

Posted on September 6, 2026 by stuartelden

Throughout his career Foucault made many promises of books he planned to write, only some of which were fulfilled. In History of Madness in 1961 he said: We will show in another study how the experience of the demonic and its waning … Continue reading →

Posted in Colin Gordon, Fernand Braudel, Foucault: The Birth of Power, Michel Foucault, Sunday Histories, The Archaeology of Foucault | 3 Comments

Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly – “Reflections on Writing” Series (open access)

Posted on September 4, 2026 by stuartelden

Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly has a “Reflections on Writing” Series – all pieces are open access The Editors of the Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly are excited to announce the launch of a new opinion-style series of pieces: ‘Reflections on Writing’ (2025 NILQ … Continue reading →

Posted in Publishing, Sunday Histories, Writing | 1 Comment

Puzzles, Patience and Clues: Carlo Ginzburg and Adriano Prosperi

Posted on August 30, 2026 by stuartelden

In an interview with Maria Lúcia G. Pallares-Burke in October 1998, published in The New History: Confessions and Conversations, Carlo Ginzburg mentions the critical attitude he has to some of his earlier works. One was his 1970 book Il nicodemismo: Simulazione e dissimulazione … Continue reading →

Posted in Adriano Prosperi, Alberto Toscano, Carlo Ginzburg, Sunday Histories, Umberto Eco, Uncategorized, Wu Ming | 4 Comments

Foucault on Frans Hals, The Regents and the illustration of his History of Madness

Posted on August 23, 2026 by stuartelden

Michel Foucault’s discussion on Dutch television with Noam Chomsky, moderated by Fons Elders, is of course well known.  The interview was part of a series, also including dialogues between A.J. Ayer and Arne Naess, Karl Popper and John Eccles, and Leszek … Continue reading →

Posted in Michel Foucault, Noam Chomsky, Sunday Histories, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Helen Deutsch, The Last Amateur: Jonathan Swift, Edward Said, and the Profession of Literature – University of Chicago Press, June 2026

Posted on August 18, 2026 by stuartelden

Helen Deutsch, The Last Amateur: Jonathan Swift, Edward Said, and the Profession of Literature – University of Chicago Press, June 2026 Joining the unfinished conversation between the satirist Jonathan Swift and the critic Edward Said, The Last Amateur argues for the transformative … Continue reading →

Posted in Edward Said, Michel Foucault, Sunday Histories | 2 Comments

Suzanne Bachelard – between Husserl’s Logic and the Philosophy of Science 

Posted on August 16, 2026 by stuartelden

Suzanne Bachelard (18 October 1919-3 November 2007) was the daughter of Gaston Bachelard. Her mother died in June 1920 when she was still an infant, and she was brought up by her father. She would sit in on his teaching … Continue reading →

Posted in Alexandre Koyré, Canguilhem (book), Edmund Husserl, Gaston Bachelard, Georges Canguilhem, Jacques Derrida, Jean Cavaillès, Jean Hyppolite, Michel Foucault, Sunday Histories, Suzanne Bachelard | Leave a comment

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 | 3 Comments

The Historian as Detective – Carlo Ginzburg and the Search for ‘Clues’

Posted on August 2, 2026 by stuartelden

A few years ago, after one of the presentations I’d given on reconstructing Émile Benveniste’s movements during the Second World War through various archives, one audience member said to another: “If I ever go missing, I want Stuart leading the … Continue reading →

Posted in Carlo Ginzburg, Sigmund Freud, Sunday Histories, Umberto Eco | 7 Comments