Michel Leiris : writing the self

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Bibliographic Information

Michel Leiris : writing the self

Seán Hand

(Cambridge studies in French, 70)

Cambridge University Press, 2002

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Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. 229-254) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

This is the first full-length study in English of Michel Leiris's work. Frequently cited as a central figure in contemporary French culture, Leiris was an outstanding writer whose double career as ethnographer and creative writer places him at important points of intersection within French cultural history. Sean Hand explores Leiris's active participation in some of the most striking intellectual and artistic movements of the twentieth century: surrealism in the twenties, ethnography in the thirties and existentialism in the forties. 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 La Regle du jeu stands as the model form of self-enquiry in the twentieth century. More broadly, Hand explores Leiris's continuing obsession with the notion of 'presence'. Informed by recent critical theories, Hand offers a multi disciplinary approach to this intriguing writer.

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 Regle du jeu
  • 5. Secreting the self: Journal 1922-1989
  • Part II. The Quest for Presence in La Regle 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 Regle du jeu
  • 9. Thanatography: non-being as the limit of autobiography
  • Conclusion: locating Leiris
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Index.

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