Synopses & Reviews
Includes bibliographical references (p. 229-254) and index.
Synopsis
This is the first full-length study in English of the work of Michel Leiris who is frequently cited as a central figure in contemporary French culture. Seán Hand explores Leiris's participation in some of the most striking intellectual and artistic movements of the twentieth century: surrealism, ethnography and existentialism. Hand locates his writing in these different contexts in relation to the major artistic, political and philosophical concepts of the period. He goes on to argue that Leiris's multi-volume autobiography stands as the model form of self-enquiry in the twentieth century.
About the Author
Seán Hand is Professor of French and Head of the School of Languages at Oxford Brookes University. He has published on Derrida, psychoanalysis, and contemporary French writing.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements; Introduction: the deaths of Michel Leiris; Part I. Texts and Contexts: 1. Unities and identities: Leiris and surrealism; 2. Recasting the self: from surrealism to ethnography; 3. Autobiographical frameworks: from ethnography to L'Age d'homme; 4. Positional play: La Règle du jeu; 5. Secreting the self: Journal 1922-1989; Part II. The Quest for Presence in La Règle du jeu: 6. Excess of joy: the beginnings of presence in '... Reusement!'; 7. Organs of learning: sensing presence in Biffures; 8. The act of union: being-in-the-world in La Règle du jeu; 9. Thanatography: non-being as the limit of autobiography; Conclusion: locating Leiris; Notes; Bibliography; Index.