Michel Leiris
Writing the Self

This is the first full-length study in English of Michel Leiris's work.

Seán Hand (Author)

9780521495745, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 1 August 2002

276 pages, 4 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.57 kg

'This is the first in-depth study in English of Michel Leiris's work, and it offers a well organised and penetrating analysis of all the aspects of this unusual writer.' Modern & Contemporary France

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. Seán 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 Règle 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.

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.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: from c 1900 - [DSBH], Literary theory [DSA]