Caillois, Paulhan et le « Collège de sociologie » ou le Creux, le Terne et le Sphinx
Caillois, Paulhan and the “Collège de Sociologie”, or the Hollow, the Dull and the Sphinx

Summary/Abstract: The author analyzes the correspondence, centered on the “Collège de Sociologie”, between Roger Caillois and Jean Paulhan during 1935-1951 and distinguishes between an epistolary Prologue, two main sections entitled respectively Le Collège de Sociologie and Les Collèges de Sociologie and dealing with the Parisian avantgarde movement and later on with both the Collège in Paris and the one in Latin America, where Caillois found himself during WWII, as well as three epistolary Codas. The examination of the letters demonstrates that Paulhan initiated the six episodes composing the Prologue and the Collège parts, while Caillois was the initiator of the four episodes composing the Collèges part and the Codas. The terms “hollow” (‘creux’) and “dull” (‘terne’) correspond to the abrupt ways in which Caillois and Paulhan defined themselves to each other in their letters, while it was Bataille who characterized the Collège de Sociologie as a “Sphinx”

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