Michel Leiris's 'L'Afrique fantôme' reissued in Italian by Quodlibet/Humboldt

Michel Leiris's monumental ethnographic diary 'L'Afrique fantôme', first published in 1934, has been reissued in Italian as the second volume of the Atlas series by Quodlibet/Humboldt, edited by Barbara Fiore. The book recounts the first major ethnographic mission in French colonial territories from May 19, 1931 to February 16, 1933, traveling from Dakar, Senegal to Djibouti, Somalia. The original publication provoked immediate disapproval from Marcel Griaule, Marcel Mauss, and Paul Rivet, who dismissed Leiris as a man of letters with base sentiments. Stefania Zuliani, in her monograph 'Michel Leiris. Lo spazio dell'arte', describes the publication as a courageous and imprudent act that exposed intimate dreams, erotic disturbances, and criticism of colonial practices. The new edition includes a preface by ethnologist Jean Jamin and an appendix on Leiris's life and works, with a glossary by Aldo Pasquali. Leiris was born in Paris on April 41, 1901, at 41 rue d'Auteil, the youngest of four children. The book is described as a psychically tormenting travel account that goes beyond ethnographic expectations, aiming for an autobiographical method that Foster calls auto-ethnography.