Alter Ego: The Critical Writings of Michel Leiris (Legenda: Research Monographs in French Studies, 17) (Legenda, Research Monographs in French Studies, 17)

"Alter Ego is the first monograph in English on the critical writings of Michel Leiris (1901-90). A groundbreaking autobiographer and pioneering ethnographer, Leiris also produced important criticism on art, opera, jazz and literature, which acts as a key commentary on twentieth-century intellectual movements and demonstrates vividly the constant refashioning and reformulation of contemporary ideas and aesthetics. Hand defines and situates Leiris's core themes, analyses his criticism in each of the art areas examined, and delineates the model that emerges of a contrapuntal and heterogeneous critical identity." "Alter Ego is the first monograph in English on the critical writings of Michel Leiris (1901-90). A autobiographer and ethnographer, Leiris also produced criticism on art, opera, jazz and literature. His work offers commentary on twentieth-century intellectual movements and demonstrates the constant refashioning and reformulation of contemporary ideas and aesthetics. Hand defines and situates core themes, analyses Leiris's criticism in each art form, and proposes him as a model of post-modern critical identity."--Jacket

Hand (French, Oxford Brookes U.) seeks to demonstrate the inherent, circumstantial, and speculative value of critical work by French autobiographer and ethnographer Leiris (1901-90) through close readings of his essays on art, music, and literature. He divides his discussion into these three broad genres, but emphasizes that Leiris always thought and wrote from an interdisciplinary perspective. Distributed in the US by the David Brown Book Company. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

An autobiographer and pioneering ethnographer, Michel Leiris (1901-90) also produced important criticism on art, opera, jazz and literature. Hand here defines and situates Leiris' core themes and analyses his criticism in each of the art areas examined.