Morin, Edgar (b. 1921). French writer and sociologist. Attracted to Communism in the Resistance, he worked as a writer and journalist for the Communist Party, but eventually rejected doctrinaire Stalinism and espoused an oppositional and humanistic Marxism during the 1950s. His career is vividly described in his Autocritique (1959). He became director of the review Arguments (1957-63), which developed a non-Communist Marxism influenced by Existentialism. Turning to an academic career in sociology, he pioneered the sociology of culture and communication. His study of the phenomenon of rumours was strikingly original, but he is best known for his work in the sociology of cinema.

[Michael Kelly]

The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French. Copyright © 1995, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.