Michel Leiris: Writing the Self

Cambridge Studies in French

by Sean Hand

This is the first full-length study in English of the work of Michel Leiris, a central figure in contemporary French culture. It explores Leiris's participation in some of the most striking intellectual and artistic movements of the surrealism, ethnography and existentialism. Comparing his writing to the major artistic, political and philosophical concepts of the period, Hand asserts that Leiris's multi-volume autobiography remains as the model form of twentieth century self-inquiry.

276 pages, Paperback

First published July 31, 1998

Reviews

[Michael A. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read almost the entire first part and the conclusion. The introduction says "first English study on Michel Leiris" but this is a half-truth. You literally need to know how to speak French to read this book. There's loads of untranslated French and then English analyses of this untranslated French. Entire blocks of paragraphs of French untranslated, and then he talks about it as if it wasn't in French. I have no idea why he decided to do this - my guess this is for grad students and even professionals who want to avoid the "problem of translation". In other words, this isn't for undergrads - well I guess it could be if you knew French.

As for the text itself, from what I could understand it had the form of a good analysis, but it dropped down differance and rhizomatic like it was no thing, so probably an expectation of having a solid background in Continental Philosophy is expected.

From what I got out of this, Leiris was sort of a fringe surrealist who was influential in the movement, and he wrote huge autobiographies. "Writing the self" I'm pretty sure is just an academic way of saying "writing an autobiography". Wish I could give this a high score.

[Dave Tilley · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a book that says "first English study on Michel Leiris" it is impossible to read without the ability to read French as the author provides no translations of all the quoted French language. Never would have started it had I known. What a disappointment.