Roger Caillois

Kojève, Dumézil and Mauss taught Caillois; Lévi-Strauss traded arguments with him. His good friend Bataille, Leiris and Caillois himself, members of ‘Acéphale’, founded the Collège de Sociologie with Blanchot and Klossowski: Adorno, Benjamin and Sartre gave lectures. Breton, Bataille and he formed the anti-fascist group Contre-attaque. Caillois’ friendship with Ocampo led to 5 years’ exile in Argentina, during which he befriended (and later translated) Borges, as well as Neruda, Porchía, Fuentes and Cortázar. He linked up briefly with Tzara, Aragon and Bachelard, and famously argued with Breton about dissecting a Mexican jumping bean.