Western Philosophy 20th-century philosophy
Georges Bataille
Name:	Georges Bataille
Birth:	September 10, 1897 (Billom, France)
Death:	July 9, 1962
School/tradition:	Continental philosophy
Influences:	Nietzsche, Karl Marx, Hegel, Sigmund Freud
Influenced:	Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida

Georges Bataille (September 10, 1897 – July 9, 1962) was a French writer, anthropologist, archivist and philosopher, though he avoided this last term himself. September 10 is the 253rd day of the year (254th in leap years). ... 1897 (MDCCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... July 9 is the 190th day of the year (191st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 175 days remaining. ... 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar). ... The term writer can apply to anyone who creates a written work, but the word more usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. ... See Anthropology. ... An archivist surveying an unprocessed collection of materials. ... A philosopher is a person who thinks deeply regarding people, society, the world, and/or the universe. ...

Life and work

Bataille was born in Billom (Auvergne). He initially considered priesthood and went to a Catholic seminary but renounced his faith in 1922. He is often quoted as regarding the brothels of Paris as his true churches, a sentiment which reflects the concepts in his work. Billom is a commune in France, located in the département of Puy-de-Dôme in the Clermont-Ferrand arrondissement of the Auvergne region of France. ... (Region flag) (Region logo) Location Administration Capital Clermont-Ferrand Regional President René Souchon (PS) (since 2006) Departments Allier Cantal Haute-Loire Puy-de-Dôme Arrondissements 14 Cantons 158 Communes 1,310 Statistics Land area1 26,013 km² Population (Ranked 19th)  - January 1, 2006 est. ... . ... Year 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar). ...

Bataille attended the École des Chartes in Paris and graduated (second in his class) in February 1922, as a 'archiviste-paléographe' (which is translated by Fijalkowski and Richardson as 'palaeographic archivist', a term which by any modern English professional standards, is virtually meaningless). Bataille is often referred to, interchangeably, as an archivist and a librarian. While it is true that he worked at the Bibliothèque Nationale, his work there was with medallion collections (he also published scholarly articles on numismatics), and his thesis at the École de Chartes was a critical edition of the medieval manuscript L’Ordre de Chevalerie which he produced directly by classifying the eight manuscripts from which he reconstructed the poem. After graduating he moved to the School of Advanced Spanish Studies in Madrid. [For further information see Surya, Michel 'Georges Bataille, la mort à l'œuvre' (Gallimard: Paris, 1992 and the English translation 'Georges Bataille: an intellectual biography' by Fijalkowski and Richardson (Verso: London, 2002)] Year 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar). ... An archivist surveying an unprocessed collection of materials. ... The Librarian, a 1556 painting by Giuseppe Arcimboldo A librarian is an information professional trained in library science: the organization and management of information and service to people with information needs. ... The new buildings of the library. ... Numismatics is the scientific study of money and its history in all its varied forms. ...

Founder of several journals and groups of writers, Bataille is the author of an oeuvre both abundant and diverse: readings, poems, essays on innumerable subjects (on the mysticism of economy, in passing of poetry, philosophy, the arts, eroticism). He sometimes published under pseudonyms, and some of his publications were banned. He was relatively ignored in his lifetime and scorned by contemporaries such as Jean-Paul Sartre as an advocate of mysticism, but after his death had considerable influence on authors such as Michel Foucault, Philippe Sollers and Jacques Derrida, all of whom were affiliated with the Tel Quel journal. His influence is felt in the work of Jean Baudrillard, as well as in the psychoanalytic theories of Jacques Lacan. Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (June 21, 1905 – April 15, 1980), normally known simply as Jean-Paul Sartre (pronounced: ), was a French existentialist philosopher and pioneer, dramatist and screenwriter, novelist and critic. ... Mysticism from the Greek μυστικός (mystikos) an initiate (of the Eleusinian Mysteries, μυστήρια (mysteria) meaning initiation[1]) is the pursuit of achieving communion or identity with, or conscious awareness of, ultimate reality, the divine, spiritual truth, or God through direct experience, intuition, or insight; and the belief that such experience is an... Michel Foucault (IPA pronunciation: ; English-speakers pronunciation varies) (October 15, 1926 – June 25, 1984) was a French philosopher and historian. ... Philippe Sollers (b. ... Jacques Derrida (July 15, 1930 – October 8, 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher, known as the founder of deconstruction. ... Disambiguation : for the Moroccan weekly newspaper see here. ... Jean Baudrillard (born June 20, 1929, in Reims, died March 6, 2007 in Paris) (IPA pronunciation: [1]) was a French cultural theorist, philosopher, political commentator, and photographer. ... Jacques Lacan Jacques-Marie-Émile Lacan (April 13, 1901 – September 9, 1981) was a French psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, and doctor. ...

Attracted early on to Surrealism, Bataille quickly fell out with its founder André Breton, although Bataille and the Surrealists resumed cautiously cordial relations after World War II. Bataille was a member of the extremely influential College of Sociology in France between World War I and World War II. The College of Sociology was also comprised of several renegade surrealists. He was heavily influenced by Hegel, Freud, Marx, Marcel Mauss, the Marquis de Sade, Alexandre Kojève and Friedrich Nietzsche, the last of whom he defended in a notable essay against appropriation by the Nazis. André Breton André Breton (February 19, 1896 – September 28, 1966) was a French writer, poet, and surrealist theorist, and is best known as the main founder of surrealism. ... The College of Sociology was a loosely-knit group of French intellectuals, named after the informal discussion series that they organized. ... Combatants Allied Powers: Russian Empire France British Empire Italy United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary German Empire Ottoman Empire Bulgaria Commanders Nikolay II Aleksey Brusilov Georges Clemenceau Joseph Joffre Ferdinand Foch Robert Nivelle Herbert H. Asquith D. Lloyd George Sir Douglas Haig Sir John Jellicoe Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... The College of Sociology was a loosely-knit group of French intellectuals, named after the informal discussion series that they organized. ... Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (August 27, 1770 - November 14, 1831) was a German philosopher born in Stuttgart, Württemberg, in present-day southwest Germany. ... Sigmund Freud His famous couch Sigmund Freud (May 6, 1856 - September 23, 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology, a movement that popularized the theory that unconscious motives control much behavior. ... Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818, Trier, Germany – March 14, 1883, London) was a German philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary. ... Marcel Mauss (May 10, 1872 – February 10, 1950) was a French sociologist best known for his role in elaborating on and securing the legacy of his uncle Émile Durkheim and the Année Sociologique. ... Portrait of the Marquis de Sade by Charles-Amédée-Philippe van Loo (c. ... Alexandre Kojève (Александр Владимирович Кожевников, Aleksandr Vladimirovič Koževnikov) (April 28, 1902 – June 4, 1968) was a Marxist and Hegelian political philosopher, who had a substantial influence on Twentieth-Century French Philosophy. ... Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15, 1844 to August 25, 1900) (IPA: ) was a German philosopher. ... The Nazi party used a right-facing swastika as their symbol and the red and black colors were said to represent Blut und Boden (blood and soil). ...

Fascinated by human sacrifice, he founded a secret society, Acéphale (the headless), the symbol of which was a decapitated man, in order to instigate a new religion. According to legend, Bataille and the other members of Acéphale each agreed to be the sacrificial victim as an inauguration; none of them would agree to be the executioner. An indemnity was offered for an executioner, but none was found before the dissolution of Acéphale shortly before the war. The group also published an eponymous review, highly concerned by Nietzsche's philosophy, and which carried an attempt of thinking what Jacques Derrida has called an "anti-sovereignty". Bataille thus collaborated with André Masson, Pierre Klossowski, Roger Caillois, Julles Monnerot, Jean Rollin and Jean Wahl. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... André Masson’s cover for the first issue of Acéphale. ... André Masson’s cover for the first issue of Acéphale. ... Jacques Derrida (July 15, 1930 – October 8, 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher, known as the founder of deconstruction. ... Sovereignty is the exclusive right to exercise supreme political (e. ... Pedestal Table in the Studio, (1922) André-Aimé-René Masson (January 4, 1896 – October 28, 1987) was a French artist. ... Pierre Klossowski (1905 – August 12, 2001) was a French writer, translator and artist. ... Roger Caillois (March 3, 1913 - December 21, 1978), was a French intellectual whose idiosyncratic work brought together literary criticism, sociology, and philosophy by focusing on subjects as diverse as gems and the sacred. ... Jean Rollin on the set of La Vampire nue, 1969. ... Jean André Wahl (1888 - 1974) was a French philosopher. ...

Bataille had an amazing interdisciplinary talent — he drew from diverse influences and used diverse modes of discourse to create his work. His novel The Story of the Eye, for example, published under the pseudonym Lord Auch (literally, Lord "to the shithouse" — "auch" being slang for telling somebody off by sending them to the toilet), was initially read as pure pornography, while interpretation of the work has gradually matured to reveal the considerable philosophical and emotional depth that is characteristic of other writers who have been categorized within "literature of transgression." The imagery of the novel is built upon a series of metaphors which in turn refer to philosophical constructs developed in his work: the eye, the egg, the sun, the earth, the testicle. Interdisciplinary work is that which integrates concepts across different disciplines. ... Histoire de loeil (Story of the Eye) is a novella written by Georges Bataille that details the sexual experimentation of two teenage lovers, and their increasing perversion. ... Transgressional fiction or transgressive fiction is a genre of literature that focuses on characters who feel confined by the norms and expectations of society and who use unusual and/or illicit ways to break free of those confines. ...

Other famous novels include My Mother and The Blue of Noon. The latter, with its necrophilic and political tendencies, its autobiographical or testimonial undertones, and its philosophical moments turns The Story of the Eye on its head, providing a much darker and bleaker treatment of contemporary historical reality.

Bataille was also a philosopher (though he renounced this title), but for many, like Sartre, his philosophical claims bordered on atheist mysticism. During World War Two, and influenced by Kojève's reading of Hegel, and by Nietzsche, he wrote a Summa Atheologica (the title parallels Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica) which comprises his works "Inner Experience", "Guilty", and "On Nietzsche". After the war he composed his "The Accursed share", and founded the also extremely influential journal "Critique". His very special conception of "sovereignty" (which may be described as "anti-sovereignty") was discussed by Jacques Derrida, Giorgio Agamben, Jean-Luc Nancy and others. Jean Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Sartre (June 21, 1905–April 15, 1980) was a French existentialist philosopher, dramatist, novelist and critic. ... Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (August 27, 1770 - November 14, 1831) was a German philosopher born in Stuttgart, Württemberg, in present-day southwest Germany. ... Friedrich Nietzsche, 1882 Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15, 1844 - August 25, 1900) was a highly influential German philosopher. ... Saint Thomas Aquinas [Thomas of Aquin, or Aquino] (c. ... Summa theologiae, Pars secunda, prima pars. ... In Georges Batailles theory of consumption, the accursed share is that excessive and non-recuperable part of any economy which is destined to one of two modes of economic and social expenditure. ... Sovereignty is the exclusive right to exercise supreme political (e. ... Jacques Derrida (July 15, 1930 – October 8, 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher, known as the founder of deconstruction. ... Giorgio Agamben (born 1942) is an Italian philosopher who teaches at the Università IUAV di Venezia. ... Jean-Luc Nancy (born 26 July 1940) is a French philosopher. ...

Bataille was twice married, first with the actress Silvia Maklès; they divorced in 1934, and she later married the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. Bataille also had a liaison with Colette Peignot, who died in 1938. In 1946 Bataille married Diane de Beauharnais; they had one daughter. Jacques Lacan Jacques-Marie-Émile Lacan (April 13, 1901 – September 9, 1981) was a French psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, and doctor. ... Colette Peignot (1903 - 1938) was a French author who wrote under the psedonym Laure. ...

Posthumous reputation

Bataille's works influenced a number of key philosophers and theorists towards the end of his life and after his death, including Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Jean Baudrillard and Jacques Lacan.

Author James Dickey used a quote from Bataille as an epigraph to his novel Deliverance. James Dickey (February 2, 1923 – January 19, 1997) was a popular United States poet and novelist. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Ma Mère was adapted for film in 2004. 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In 2006 the Hayward Gallery in London staged the 'Undercover Surrealism' exhibition devoted to "the vision of Georges Bataille". For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... Hayward Gallery, London The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the South Bank Centre, situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, in central London, England. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ...

In the 2007 Of Montreal album Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?, Kevin Barnes mentions Georges Bataille as well as his novel The Story of the Eye, or Histoire de l'oeil, in the song "The Past Is a Grotesque Animal". 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ... Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? is the latest album from indie pop band of Montreal. ... Histoire de loeil (Story of the Eye) is a novella written by Georges Bataille that details the sexual experimentation of two teenage lovers, and their increasing perversion. ...

Quotes

• "Man goes constantly in fear of himself. His erotic urges terrify him."
• "Eroticism is assenting to life even in death."
• "The sovereign being is burdened with a servitude that crushes him, and the condition of free men is deliberate servility."
• "Pleasure only starts once the worm has got into the fruit, to become delightful happiness must be tainted with poison."
• "Naturally, love's the most distant possibility."

Key concepts

Base materialism

Bataille developed base materialism during the late 1920s and early 1930s as an attempt to break with mainstream materialism. Bataille argues for the concept of an active base matter that disrupts the opposition of high and low and destabilises all foundations. In a sense the concept is similar to Spinoza's neutral monism of a substance that encompasses both the dual substances of mind and matter posited by Descartes, however it defies strict definition and remains in the realm of experience rather than rationalisation. Base materialism was a major influence on Derrida’s deconstruction, and both share the attempt to destabilise philosophical oppositions by means of an unstable ‘third term’. Bataille's notion of Base Materialism may also be seen as anticipating Althusser's conception of aleatory materialism or "materialism of the encounter", which draws on similar atomist metaphors to sketch a world in which causality and actuality are abandoned in favor of limitless possibilities of action. In philosophy, materialism is that form of physicalism which holds that the only thing that can truly be said to exist is matter; that fundamentally, all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions. ... Baruch Spinoza Benedictus de Spinoza (November 24, 1632 - February 21, 1677), named Baruch Spinoza by his synagogue elders and known as Bento de Spinoza or Bento dEspiñoza in the community in which he grew up. ... Neutral monism, in philosophy, is the metaphysical view that nature consists of one kind (hence monism) of primal stuff, which in itself is neither mental nor physical, but is capable of mental and physical aspects or attributes. ... Look up substance in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see Mind (disambiguation). ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... René Descartes René Descartes (IPA: , March 31, 1596 – February 11, 1650), also known as Cartesius, worked as a philosopher and mathematician. ... Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida (July 15, 1930 – October 8, 2004) was an Algerian-born French literary critic and philosopher of Jewish descent, considered the first to develop deconstruction. Positioning Derridas thought Derrida had a significant effect on continental philosophy and on literary theory, particularly through his long-time... Deconstruction is a term in contemporary philosophy and social sciences, denoting a process by which the texts and languages of Western philosophy (in particular) appear to shift and complicate in meaning, when read in light of the assumptions and absences they reveal within themselves. ... Louis Pierre Althusser (Pronunciation: altuË¡seʁ) (October 16, 1918 - October 23, 1990) was a Marxist philosopher. ...

Other

• eroticism
• the accursed share
• the potlatch (borrowed from Marcel Mauss's discussion of the kula and the gift economy)
• absolute negativity
• formlessness
• acephality
• the pineal eye- see Pineal: Mythology and Philosophy
• the sacred
• The Solar Anus
• heterogeneous matter (deviant social elements)
• homogeneity's need for deviance
• transgression
• immanence

Eroticism is an aesthetic focused on sexual desire, especially the feelings of anticipation of sexual activity. ... In Georges Batailles theory of consumption, the accursed share is that excessive and non-recuperable part of any economy which is destined to one of two modes of economic and social expenditure. ... The Kwakwakawakw continue the practice of potlatch. ... Marcel Mauss (May 10, 1872 – February 10, 1950) was a French sociologist best known for his role in elaborating on and securing the legacy of his uncle Émile Durkheim and the Année Sociologique. ... Look up Kula in Wiktionary, the free dictionary This page is about the ceremonial exchange system Kula. ... A gift economy is an economic system in which the prevalent mode of exchange is for goods and services to be given without explicit agreement upon a quid pro quo (the Latin term for the concept of a favor for a favor). Typically, this occurs in a cultural context where... Headless-ness. ... The pineal gland (also called the pineal body or epiphysis) is a small endocrine gland in the brain. ... In various religions, sacred (from Latin, sacrum, sacrifice) or holy, objects, places or concepts are believed by followers to be intimately connected with the supernatural, or divinity, and are thus greatly revered. ... The Solar Anus is a short Surrealist text written by the French writer and philosopher Georges Bataille. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... DEViANCE ASCII logo by Strick9. ... Transgression refers to an action that breaks some code or set of rules, that is, goes across or against basic assumptions or norms. ... Immanence, derived from the Latin in manere to remain within, refers to philosophical and metaphysical theories of the divine as existing and acting within the mind or the world. ...

Bibliography

Primary literature

Complete works

Georges Bataille, Œuvres complètes (Paris: Gallimard)

• Volume 1: Premiers écrits, 1922-1940: Histoire de l'œil - L'Anus solaire - Sacrifices - Articles.
• Volume 2: Écrits posthumes, 1922-1940
• Volume 3: Œuvres littéraires: Madame Edwarda - Le Petit - L'Archangélique - L'Impossible - La Scissiparité - L'Abbé C. - L'être différencié n'est rien - Le Bleu du ciel.
• Volume 4: Œuvres littéraires posthumes: Poèmes - Le Mort - Julie - La Maison brûlée - La Tombe de Louis XXX - Divinus Deus - Ébauches.
• Volume 5: La Somme athéologique I: L'Expérience intérieure - Méthode de méditation - Post-scriptum 1953 - Le Coupable - L'Alleluiah.
• Volume 6: La Somme athéologique II: Sur Nietzsche - Mémorandum - Annexes.
• Volume 7: L'économie à la mesure de l'univers - La Part maudite - La limite de l'utile (Fragments) - Théorie de la Religion - Conférences 1947-1948 - Annexes.
• Volume 8: L'Histoire de l'érotisme - Le surréalisme au jour le jour - Conférences 1951-1953 - La Souveraineté - Annexes.
• Volume 9: Lascaux, ou La naissance de l’art - Manet - La littérature et le mal - Annexes
• Volume 10: L’érotisme - Le procès de Gilles de Rais - Les larmes d’Eros
• Volume 11: Articles I, 1944-1949
• Volume 12: Articles II, 1950-1961

Selected works:

• Histoire de l'oeil, 1928. (Story of the Eye) (under pseudonym of Lord Auch)
• Le Bleu du ciel, 1935 (Blue of Noon)
• Madame Edwarda, 1937. (under pseudonym of Pierre Angélique)
• L'expérience intérieure, 1943. (Inner Experience)
• La Part maudite, 1949 (The Accursed Share)
• L'Abbe C, 1950.
• L'Erotisme, 1957 (Erotism)
• La littérature et le Mal, 1957. (Literature and Evil)
• Les larmes d'Éros, 1961. (The Tears of Eros)
• L'Impossible, 1962. (The Impossible)
• Ma Mére, 1966 (My Mother)
• Le Mort, 1967 (The Dead Man)
• Théorie de la Religion, 1973. (Theory of Religion)

Translated works: Histoire de loeil (Story of the Eye) is a novella written by Georges Bataille that details the sexual experimentation of two teenage lovers, and their increasing perversion. ... Le Bleu du Ciel (Blue of Noon- English) is a transgressive novella of erotic fiction written in 1935, and its French author, Georges Bataille was a committed anti-fascist, as can be seen from the content of this particular work. ... Lexpérience intérieure is a book by Georges Bataille first published by Gallimard in 1943 then reedited as part of the fifth volume of Batailles complete works in 1954. ... La Part maudite (eng: the accursed share) is a book by Georges Bataille written between 1946 and 1949. ... LAbbe C (1950) was Georges Batailles first published novella. ...

• Lascaux; or, the Birth of Art, the Prehistoric Paintings, Austryn Wainhouse, 1955, Lausanne: Skira.
• Manet, Austryn Wainhouse and James Emmons, 1955, Editions d'Art Albert Skira.
• Literature and Evil, Alastair Hamilton, 1973, Calder & Boyars Ltd.
• Visions of Excess: Selected Writings 1927-1939, Allan Stoekl, Carl R. Lovitt, and Donald M. Leslie, Jr., 1985, University of Minnesota Press.
• Erotism: Death and Sensuality, Mary Dalwood, 1986, City Lights Books.
• Story of the Eye, Joachim Neugroschel, 1987, City Lights Books.
• The Accursed Share: An Essay On General Economy. Volume I: Consumption, Robert Hurley, 1988, Zone Books.
• The College of Sociology, 1937–39 (Bataille et al.), Betsy Wing, 1988, University of Minnesota Press.
• Guilty, Bruce Boone, 1988, The Lapis Press.
• Inner Experience, Leslie Anne Boldt, 1988, State University of New York.
• My Mother, Madame Edwarda, The Dead Man, Austryn Wainhouse, with essays by Yukio Mishima and Ken Hollings, 1989, Marion Boyars Publishers.
• The Tears of Eros, Peter Connor, 1989, City Lights Books.
• Theory of Religion, Robert Hurley, 1989, Zone Books.
• The Accursed Share: Volumes II and III, Robert Hurley, 1991, Zone Books.
• The Impossible, Robert Hurley, 1991, City Lights Books.
• The Trial of Gilles de Rais, Richard Robinson, 1991, Amok Press.
• On Nietzsche, Bruce Boone, 1992, Paragon House.
• The Absence of Myth: Writings on Surrealism, Michael Richardson, 1994, Verso.
• Encyclopaedia Acephalica (Bataille et al.), Iain White et al., 1995, Atlas Press.
• L'Abbe C, Philip A Facey, 2001, Marion Boyars Publishers.
• Blue of Noon, Harry Matthews, 2002, Marion Boyars Publishers.
• The Unfinished System of Nonknowledge, Stuart Kendall and Michelle Kendall, 2004, University of Minnesota Press.

Édouard Manet - 19th century French painter Mobile_ad-hoc_network - A self configuring wireless network This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Histoire de loeil (Story of the Eye) is a novella written by Georges Bataille that details the sexual experimentation of two teenage lovers, and their increasing perversion. ... La Part maudite (eng: the accursed share) is a book by Georges Bataille written between 1946 and 1949. ... Guilty is also the name of: A number of songs: Guilty, a 1931 song by Richard Whiting, Harry Akst, and Gus Kahn, popularized by Johnny Desmond and later Margaret Whiting. ... LAbbe C (1950) was Georges Batailles first published novella. ... Le Bleu du Ciel (Blue of Noon- English) is a transgressive novella of erotic fiction written in 1935, and its French author, Georges Bataille was a committed anti-fascist, as can be seen from the content of this particular work. ...

Secondary literature

• Boldt-Irons, Leslie Anne (ed.), On Bataille: Critical Essays (Albany: SUNY Press, 1995).
• Surya, Michel 'Georges Bataille, la mort à l'œuvre' (Gallimard: Paris, 1992)
• Connor, Peter, Georges Bataille and the Mysticism of Sin (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000).
• Derrida, Jacques, "From Restricted to General Economy: A Hegelianism without Reserve," in Writing and Difference (London: Routledge, 1978).
• Gill, Carolyn, Bataille: Writing the Sacred, (London: Routledge, 1995).
• ffrench, Patrick, The Cut (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).
• Gemerchak, Christopher, The Sunday of the Negative: Reading Bataille Reading Hegel (Albany: SUNY Press, 2003).
• Hill, Lesley, "Bataile, Klossowski, Blanchot: Writing At The Limit" (Oxford University Press, 2001).
• Hollier, Denis, Against Architecture: The Writings of Georges Bataille (MIT Press, 1992).
• Hussey, Andrew, Inner Scar: The Mysicism of Georges Bataille (Amsterdam: Rudopi, 2000).
• Land, Nick, The Thirst for Annihilation: Georges Bataille and Virulent Nihilism (an essay on atheistic religion) (London: Routledge, 1992).
• Nancy, Jean-Luc, The Inoperative Community (Minneapolis & Oxford: University of Minnesota Press, 1991).
• Noys, Benjamin, Georges Bataille: a critical introduction (London: Pluto, 2000).
• Richardson, Michael, Georges Bataille (London: Routledge, 1994).
• Sollers, Philippe, Writing and the Experience of Limits (Columbia University Press, 1982).
• Stoekl, Allan (ed.), On Bataille: Yale French Studies 78 (1990). Includes: Bataille, "Hegel, Death and Sacrifice"; Bataille, "Letter to René Char on the Incompatibilities of the Writer"; Jean-Luc Nancy, "Exscription"; Rebecca Comay, "Gifts without Presents: Economies of 'Experience' in Bataille and Heidegger"; Jean-Joseph Goux, "General Economics and Postmodern Capitalism."
• Surya, Michel, Georges Bataille: an intellectual biography, trans. by Krzysztof Fijalkowski and Michael Richardson (London: Verso, 2002).

Jacques Derrida (July 15, 1930 – October 8, 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher, known as the founder of deconstruction. ... Jean-Luc Nancy (born 26 July 1940) is a French philosopher. ... Philippe Sollers (b. ... Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (August 27, 1770 - November 14, 1831) was a German philosopher born in Stuttgart, Württemberg, in present-day southwest Germany. ... René Char (1907 - 1988) René Char (June 14, 1907 - February 19, 1988) was a 20th century poet. ... Jean-Luc Nancy (born 26 July 1940) is a French philosopher. ... Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (September 26, 1889 – May 26, 1976) was a German philosopher. ...

External links

• Bataille material by James Comas at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
• Overview of Bataille
• George Bataille biography
• Georges Bataille Electronic Library
• Bataille's Apocalypse
• Extract from Bataille's Eroticism
• IMDb entry for Ma mère
• Hayward Gallery's 'Undercover Surrealism' site
• New Statesman feature on Bataille's exhibition
• Bataille on the Mystical Site www.mysticism.nl
• Georges Bataille y Pierre Klossowski, ferozmente religiosos | "Acéphale"| Dr. Adolfo Vasquez Rocca
• A sampling of Bataille texts