Roger Caillois (1913-1978) was a French social theorist and writer.Claudine Frank is Assistant Professor of French at Barnard College.

“Roger Caillois has remained relatively unknown in the English-speaking world. This superb selection of his essays, expertly translated, shows the full range of his thought and should place him next to Bataille and the Surrealists as a major intellectual figure in interwar and postwar France. Claudine Frank's general introduction and detailed commentaries on individual essays provide the necessary contexts for understanding this complex, often paradoxical thinker. A first-rate work that is sure to be of interest to all students of 20th-century French thought.”-Susan Rubin Suleiman, author of Risking Who One Is: Encounters with Contemporary Art and Literature ”The Edge of Surrealism is the Caillois in one volume that is so badly needed considering the very dispersed status of Caillois’s work and that no such volume exists in any language, not even in France. This selection is excellent, done by someone who not only knows thoroughly the production of the author but knows also what’s most relevant for our contemporary interests.”-Denis Hollier, author of Absent without Leave: French Literature under the Threat of War

• Acknowledgments ixIntroduction 1I. Theory and the Thirties, 1934-1939 Surrealism and Its Environs 1. Testimony (Paul Eluard) 592. The Praying Mantis: From Biology to Psychoanalysis 663. Letter to Andre Breton; Literature in Crisis 824. Mimicry and Legendary Psychasthenia 89Biology and Myth 5. Review of L'Homme, cet inconnu, by Dr. Alexis Carrel 1076. The Function of Myth 1107. The Noon Complex 1248. For a Militant Orthodoxy: The Immediate Tasks of Modern Thought 130Lucifer at the College of Sociology 9. Interview with Gilles Lapouge, June 1970 14110. First Lecture: Sacred Sociology and the Relationships among “Society,” “Organism,” and “Being” 14711. Dionysian Virtues 15512. Aggressiveness as a Value 16013. The Birth of Lucifer 16614. Paris, a Modern Myth 17315. Sociology of the Intellectual 190II. Writing from Patagonia, 1940–1945 After the College 16. Preamble to the Spirit of Sects 20517. Discussions of Sociological Topics: On “Defense of the Republic” 21318. The Nature and Structure of Totalitarian Regimes 217Treasure and Culture 19. Duties and Privileges of French Writers Abroad 23520. Patagonia 24021. The Myth of Secret Treasures in Childhood 25222. The Situation of Poetry 26223. Pythian Heritage (On the Nature of Poetic Inspiration) 268III. Postwar Stances, 1946–1978 The Moralists 24. Loyola to the Rescue of Marx 27925. Paroxysms of Society 28426. Metamorphoses of Hell 298Signs and Images 27. The Image 31528. Fruitful Ambiguity 32029. Surrealism as a World of Signs 326Diagonal Science 30 The Great Bridgemaker 33731. A New Plea for Diagonal Science 34332. The Natural Fantastic 348Roger Caillois Timeline 359Notes 363Bibliography 401Index 415

Roger Caillois (1913-1978) was a French social theorist and writer.Claudine Frank is Assistant Professor of French at Barnard College.

“Roger Caillois has remained relatively unknown in the English-speaking world. This superb selection of his essays, expertly translated, shows the full range of his thought and should place him next to Bataille and the Surrealists as a major intellectual figure in interwar and postwar France. Claudine Frank's general introduction and detailed commentaries on individual essays provide the necessary contexts for understanding this complex, often paradoxical thinker. A first-rate work that is sure to be of interest to all students of 20th-century French thought.”-Susan Rubin Suleiman, author of Risking Who One Is: Encounters with Contemporary Art and Literature ”The Edge of Surrealism is the Caillois in one volume that is so badly needed considering the very dispersed status of Caillois’s work and that no such volume exists in any language, not even in France. This selection is excellent, done by someone who not only knows thoroughly the production of the author but knows also what’s most relevant for our contemporary interests.”-Denis Hollier, author of Absent without Leave: French Literature under the Threat of War

• Acknowledgments ixIntroduction 1I. Theory and the Thirties, 1934-1939 Surrealism and Its Environs 1. Testimony (Paul Eluard) 592. The Praying Mantis: From Biology to Psychoanalysis 663. Letter to Andre Breton; Literature in Crisis 824. Mimicry and Legendary Psychasthenia 89Biology and Myth 5. Review of L'Homme, cet inconnu, by Dr. Alexis Carrel 1076. The Function of Myth 1107. The Noon Complex 1248. For a Militant Orthodoxy: The Immediate Tasks of Modern Thought 130Lucifer at the College of Sociology 9. Interview with Gilles Lapouge, June 1970 14110. First Lecture: Sacred Sociology and the Relationships among “Society,” “Organism,” and “Being” 14711. Dionysian Virtues 15512. Aggressiveness as a Value 16013. The Birth of Lucifer 16614. Paris, a Modern Myth 17315. Sociology of the Intellectual 190II. Writing from Patagonia, 1940–1945 After the College 16. Preamble to the Spirit of Sects 20517. Discussions of Sociological Topics: On “Defense of the Republic” 21318. The Nature and Structure of Totalitarian Regimes 217Treasure and Culture 19. Duties and Privileges of French Writers Abroad 23520. Patagonia 24021. The Myth of Secret Treasures in Childhood 25222. The Situation of Poetry 26223. Pythian Heritage (On the Nature of Poetic Inspiration) 268III. Postwar Stances, 1946–1978 The Moralists 24. Loyola to the Rescue of Marx 27925. Paroxysms of Society 28426. Metamorphoses of Hell 298Signs and Images 27. The Image 31528. Fruitful Ambiguity 32029. Surrealism as a World of Signs 326Diagonal Science 30 The Great Bridgemaker 33731. A New Plea for Diagonal Science 34332. The Natural Fantastic 348Roger Caillois Timeline 359Notes 363Bibliography 401Index 415

Roger Caillois (1913-1978) was a French social theorist and writer.Claudine Frank is Assistant Professor of French at Barnard College.

“Roger Caillois has remained relatively unknown in the English-speaking world. This superb selection of his essays, expertly translated, shows the full range of his thought and should place him next to Bataille and the Surrealists as a major intellectual figure in interwar and postwar France. Claudine Frank's general introduction and detailed commentaries on individual essays provide the necessary contexts for understanding this complex, often paradoxical thinker. A first-rate work that is sure to be of interest to all students of 20th-century French thought.”-Susan Rubin Suleiman, author of Risking Who One Is: Encounters with Contemporary Art and Literature ”The Edge of Surrealism is the Caillois in one volume that is so badly needed considering the very dispersed status of Caillois’s work and that no such volume exists in any language, not even in France. This selection is excellent, done by someone who not only knows thoroughly the production of the author but knows also what’s most relevant for our contemporary interests.”-Denis Hollier, author of Absent without Leave: French Literature under the Threat of War

• Acknowledgments ixIntroduction 1I. Theory and the Thirties, 1934-1939 Surrealism and Its Environs 1. Testimony (Paul Eluard) 592. The Praying Mantis: From Biology to Psychoanalysis 663. Letter to Andre Breton; Literature in Crisis 824. Mimicry and Legendary Psychasthenia 89Biology and Myth 5. Review of L'Homme, cet inconnu, by Dr. Alexis Carrel 1076. The Function of Myth 1107. The Noon Complex 1248. For a Militant Orthodoxy: The Immediate Tasks of Modern Thought 130Lucifer at the College of Sociology 9. Interview with Gilles Lapouge, June 1970 14110. First Lecture: Sacred Sociology and the Relationships among “Society,” “Organism,” and “Being” 14711. Dionysian Virtues 15512. Aggressiveness as a Value 16013. The Birth of Lucifer 16614. Paris, a Modern Myth 17315. Sociology of the Intellectual 190II. Writing from Patagonia, 1940–1945 After the College 16. Preamble to the Spirit of Sects 20517. Discussions of Sociological Topics: On “Defense of the Republic” 21318. The Nature and Structure of Totalitarian Regimes 217Treasure and Culture 19. Duties and Privileges of French Writers Abroad 23520. Patagonia 24021. The Myth of Secret Treasures in Childhood 25222. The Situation of Poetry 26223. Pythian Heritage (On the Nature of Poetic Inspiration) 268III. Postwar Stances, 1946–1978 The Moralists 24. Loyola to the Rescue of Marx 27925. Paroxysms of Society 28426. Metamorphoses of Hell 298Signs and Images 27. The Image 31528. Fruitful Ambiguity 32029. Surrealism as a World of Signs 326Diagonal Science 30 The Great Bridgemaker 33731. A New Plea for Diagonal Science 34332. The Natural Fantastic 348Roger Caillois Timeline 359Notes 363Bibliography 401Index 415