It is with sadness that I communicate the unexpected passing, on June 11, 2018, of Marcel Hénaff, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of French and Comparative Literature, at the age of 74. Professor Hénaff received his PhD degree from the University of Copenhagen and held Agrégation de Philosophie from the University of Paris. He joined UCSD in July 1989 and built a stellar career in the Department of Literature, while holding an adjunct professorship in Political Science, until his retirement in 2012. Among his numerous influential books in English and French, Professor Hénaff is best known for The Price of Truth: Gift, Money, Philosophy (Stanford University Press, 2010), a translation of his French original, Le Prix de la Vérité: Le don, l’argent, la philosophie (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 2002). The book was honored with the Grand Prize 2002 of Philosophy from the French Academy and the Prize of Philosophy 2002 from the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, Paris, and has been translated into other languages such as Italian (Città Aperta, 2006) and German (Suhrkamp, 2009). Professor Hénaff received the UCSD Academic Senate Faculty Research Award in 2011. We extend our condolences to Professor Hénaff’s colleagues, students, and friends.
Sincerely,
Yingjin Zhang
Chair, Department of Literature
![]() Ph.D. (University of Copenhagen) Distinguished Research Professor of French Section (Philosophy and Anthropology) Adjunct Professor of Political Science Primary Office: LIT 329 Primary Phone: (858) 534-3538 Email: mhenaff@ucsd.edu |
Continental Philosophy; Cultural Anthropology; Political Philosophy; Narrative Forms; Visual Arts; Architecture and Urbanism; Cultural Cognition
Books:
Homo Politicus. Alliance, Conflit, Reconnaissance, Paris, Seuil, forthcoming 2015 - [ Homo Politicus. Alliance, Conflict, Recognition- in progress].
Violence dans la raison? Conflit et cruauté, Paris, L'Herne, 2014; 240 p.
Le Don des philosophes. Repenser la réciprocité. Paris: Le Seuil, 2012 [German translation, Transcript Verlag, Berlin, 2014; Russian translation, Moscow Fall 2014; Arabic translation, Cairo, in progress 2015]
Dentro il pensiero selvaggio. L’antropologo e i filosofi. Conversazione : Claude Lévi-Strauss & Marcel Hénaff - Milano, Medusa, 2013.
The Price of Truth: Gift, Money, Philosophy, Stanford University Press, 2010 . Original : Le Prix de la Vérité: Le don, l’argent, la philosophie Paris: Editions du Seuil, 2002.
Le Passeur de sens, Paris, Perrin-Tempus, 2008 [Engl. transl. in progress]
La Ville qui vient, Paris, L’Herne, 2008 [Spanish trans. La Ciudad que viene, Edic. LOM, Santiago Chile, 2014 ; English transl. City in the Making, in progress]
Public Space and Democracy. Ed. With Tracy Strong. University of Minnesota Press, 2001.
Claude Lévi-Strauss and the Making of Structural Anthropology, University of Minnesota Press, 1998 [Original French version 1991, repr. 2000 & 2011; Russian transl., 2009]
Sade, the Invention of the Libertine Body. University of Minnesota Press, 1999 [Original French version 1978; Spanish trans. Ediciones Destino, Barcelona, 1980; Russian trans. Humanatoria Academia, St Petersburg, 2005].
Journals - Special issues:
"Politics on Stage." Editor. Substance 80 (fall 1996).
"Passions et Politique." Co-editor Rue Descartes, 12.13 (spring 1995), Paris.
"Lévi-Strauss: nature, langage, signes, symbolisme." Editor journal Philosophie, # 82 Summer 2008, Paris.
Articles [selection]
"Kosmische Schuld, symbolische Schuld, financielle Schuld. Paradigmen des Gleichgewichts und der Zeit", in Th. Macho Ed. Bonds. Schuld, Schulden und andere Verbinlichtkeiten, Paderborn, Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2014; pp. 33-54.
"The Humanities, the Arts and the Market. Total social fact and the question of meaning" in Giving and Taking. Antidotes to a culture of greed, Joke Bower & Sjoerd Van Tuinen Ed., V2 Publishing, Rotterdam, 2014.
"Die Bühne der Macht" [Stage of Power] Lettre International # 105 , Berlin, May 2014.
"Le don perverti. Pour une anthropologie de la corruption", Esprit, Févr. 2014 pp. 45-56.
"Grazia, Opera d'arte e spazio publico" Lettera Internazionale, Roma December 2013.
"Living with others. Lévi-Strauss and reciprocity" in Yale French Studies - Special issue on Lévi-Strauss ; Ed. Robert Doran, Spring 2013, #123, pp. 63-82.
"Ceremonial Gift-Giving: The Lessons of Anthropology with Mauss and beyond" in Gift in Antiquity, M.L. Satlow Ed., Wiley-Balckwell, Oxford, 2013, pp. 12-24.
"L’intangibile e l’inestimabile" - Lettera internazionale, Roma, June 2013 pp. 30- 37.
"Paradoxe du pouvoir, crise de l’autorité et reconnaissance. Réflexion sur le mal politique" Archives of Philosophy, LXXXI, Spring, 2013, 1-2, pp. 81-97.