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.

Promotional Information

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

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.

Reviews

'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