591 research outputs found
Influence and infection : Georges Bataille and the fate of critique
Get PDFThe thesis argues for the pertinence of the Kantian 'topography' of the mental
faculties and the power of critical thought in assessing the philosophical
importance of Georges Bataille' s writing. Such an argument runs counter to
the received tradition of interpretation of Bataille's work, which has, given
the influence of Derrida, construed these texts as works of phenomenological
philosophy. The thesis shows that Derrida's interpretation must, by virtue
of its exclusivity, be incorrect. Bataille is concerned with the trajectory
of thought - that is with the dynamics or energetics of thought - rather than
with the articulation of the logic of representation, an articulation which
characterises phenomenological thinking. The thesis argues that Bataille's
concern with the energetics of thought represents an extension of Kant's
critical project. This relation is borne out by the new uses to which he puts
the Kantian terminology of continuity, transcendence, subjectivity and
communication. Rather than simply exaggerating the power of critique, which
Kant countenanced as an influence on the mental processes, Bataille dissolves
the critical difference and fuses the status of all thought with its energetic
and thermic trajectory. For Bataille, thought is associated with the free
contagions or infections of thermic communication. Thus Bataille's relation
to Kojeve and Hegel is -only part of a wider move in designating the energetic
nature of critique over and above its restricted and conceptual uses.
Critique does not survive this definition. The thesis shows the nature of the
critical project as it is articulated by Kant in the critiques of pure reason
and judgement and how Bataille's major concepts come to inhabit this terrain
whilst subjecting themselves and it to the dissolution which is the result of
the rational groundlessness of critique. Bataille's treatment of this
topography shows that it can be used to infer the attributes of a philosophy
of intensities and change
La América desaparecida. Historias. Revista de la Dirección de Estudios Históricos. Num. 85 (2013) mayo-agosto
No full textEste artículo desconocido o poco conocido del filósofo y escritor Georges Bataille (1897-1962), que encontró Antonio Saborit en Gallica, fue publicado en el número dedicado a L’Art Précolombien de la revista parisina Les Cahiers de la Républiques des Lettres, des Sciences et des Arts, publicado en 1928. También contribuyeron al número Jean Babelon, Alfred Métraux, Paul Morand, François Poncetton, Paul Rivet, y “J.-H. Rosny”. Por entonces Bataille estaba asimilando la influencia —para él decisiva—de Marx, Nietzsche y Freud, y publicó una de sus novelas más perturbadoras y anticlericales: L’histoire de l’oeil (La historia del ojo). Se formaba su reflexión “ateológica” y su idea de una economía general marcada por un exceso esencial que debe ser gastado de una u otra forma, que expondrá en 1933 en “La notion de dépense” (“La noción de gasto”). También, el año siguiente de 1929, Bataille fundará la efímera revista Documents, contraria a los surrealistas, en la que vinculará sus intereses etnográficos y artísticos. “L’Amérique disparue”, de 1928, es un texto fuerte y esencial sobre el México prehispánico: el México desaparecido. Anticipa el capítulo sobre los “Sacrificios y las guerras de los aztecas” de La part maudite, de 1949. Bataille se pudo documentar adecuadamente sobre los incas, los mayas y el México prehispánico gracias a su trabajo como bibliotecario en la Bibliothèque Nationale de París, que le permitió aprovechar la rica tradición americanista francesa y, de manera particular, consultar las obras de fray Bernardino de Sahagún, fray Juan de Torquemada y William H. Prescott. Aunque pudo utilizar las traducciones francesas del siglo XIX, Bataille podía leer en español, gracias a su estancia de estudios en Madrid a partir de 1922, cuando trabajó en la École des Hautes Études Hispaniques, la actual Casa Velázquez, y presenció la terrible muerte del torero Manuel Granero, que lo marcó de manera definitiva en su gusto por el sacrificio y el erotismo
Combustion and Society: A Fire-Centred History of Energy Use
Get PDFFire is a force that links everyday human activities to some of the most powerful energetic movements of the Earth. Drawing together the energy-centred social theory of Georges Bataille, the fire-centred environmental history of Stephen Pyne, and the work of a number of ‘pyrotechnology’ scholars, the paper proposes that the generalized study of combustion is a key to contextualizing human energetic practices within a broader ‘economy’ of terrestrial and cosmic energy flows. We examine the relatively recent turn towards fossil-fuelled ‘internal combustion’ in the light of a much longer human history of ‘broadcast’ burning of vegetation and of artisanal pyrotechnologies – the use of heat to transform diverse materials. A combustion-centred analysis, it is argued, brings human collective life into closer contact with the geochemical and geologic conditions of earthly existence, while also pointing to the significance of explorative, experimental and even playful dispositions towards energy and matter. © 2014, SAGE Publications. All rights reserved
Georges Bataille e a comunicação soberana
Get PDFThe author investigates in this article the subject communication in Bataille´s work. According to him, Bataille has an unique work, which challenges the conventional explanation moder. Joron sees in the work of Bataille more than a pornographic literature, punctuating, among other things, his concept of sovereignty, which means, for him, strong communication.O autor investiga, neste artigo, a questão comunicacional na obra batalliana e aponta para uma leitura transdisciplinar. Bataille tem uma obra única, que desafia os modos de explicação convencionais. Joron vê na obra de Bataille mais do que uma literatura pornográfica e destaca, entre outros pontos, o que o autor - e esta é uma das maneiras com que Bataille encara a comunicação - chama de soberania, ou seja, comunicação forte
‘Making Bataille our own’: the paradoxes of New Narrative’s appropriation of Bataille
No full textInternational audienceThis article explores the importance of the French thinker and writer Georges Bataille by the New Narrative movement. By situating New Narrative readings of Bataille within the broader US reception of the French author, the article shows how important New Narrative was in popularising his work. But the New Narrative reading is paradoxical in many ways. As an apparently Catholic and gendered theory, it had to be both contradicted and furthered; as a theory of eroticism, it allowed New Narrative writers to contest dominant ideas about sexuality and the self, and provided a model of how to embrace theory while remaining non-theoretical. The essay considers Bataille’s influence in two New Narrative novels, Robert Glück’s Jack the Modernist and Dodie Bellamy’s The Letters of Mina Harker, and argues that their engagement with Bataille went beyond mere palimpsest, instead offering a poetics of dissolution into what Bataille calls ‘the continuous’
Georges Bataille: A Critical Introduction
No full textThis is a clear and concise guide to the life and work of the French intellectual Georges Bataille, best known as the author of the celebrated erotic novel, The Story of the Eye. Benjamin Noys introduces Bataille as a writer out of step with the dominant intellectual trends of his day - surrealism and existentialism - and shows that it was his very marginality that accounted in large part for his subsequent importance for the post-structuralists and the counterculture, in Europe and in the United States. Treating Bataille’s work as a whole rather than focusing, as other studies have done, on aspects of his work (i.e. as social theory or philosophy), Noys’ study is intended to be sensitive to the needs of students new to Bataille’s work while at the same time drawing on the latest research on Bataille to offer new interpretations of Bataille’s oeuvre for more experienced readers. This is the first clear, introductory reading of Bataille in English - challenging current reductive readings, and stressing the range of disciplines affected by Bataille’s work, at a time when interest in Bataille is growing
Georges Bataille e Divinus Deus
Get PDFThis paper presents a translation of a text by the Japanese writer Yukio Mishima, in a preface format, written in 1970, about two literary works by the French author Georges Bataille. In the preface, Mishima appraises Bataille's essays, highlighting the aspect of eroticism and the value of transgressing religious aspects - eminently Western Christianity - in literature. For Mishima, the experience of reading Bataille, when considering God in the form of a lustful prostitute and manifested in an episode of incest between mother and child, sentenced Bataille's writing beyond the classic narrative so common in the 20th century. Due to begin a rare and extremely important text, both for literary studies and for the critical acclaim of both authors, we undertake the translation gesture as a way of providing (long-term-)life to the writing that, itself, has already demonstrated its irrefutable historical, literary and cultural relevance.Este manuscrito presenta una traducción de un texto del escritor japonés Yukio Mishima, en un formato de prefacio, escrito en 1970, sobre dos obras literarias del autor francés Georges Bataille. En el prefacio, Mishima evalúa los escritos de Bataille, destacando el aspecto del erotismo y el valor de transgredir los aspectos religiosos, eminentemente cristianos occidentales, en la literatura. Para Mishima, la experiencia de leer Bataille, al poner a Dios en la forma de una prostituta lujuriosa y manifestarlo en un episodio de incesto entre madre e hijo, sentenció la escritura de Bataille más allá de la narrativa clásica tan común en el siglo XX. Debido a que es un texto raro y extremadamente importante tanto para los estudios literarios como para la fortuna crítica de ambos autores, emprendemos el gesto de traducción como una forma de proporcionar (sobre)vida a la escritura que, en sí misma, ya demuestra su irrefutable relevancia histórica, literaria y cultural.Este manuscrito apresenta uma tradução de um texto do escritor japonês Yukio Mishima, em formato de prefácio, escrito em 1970, sobre duas obras literárias do autor francês Georges Bataille. No prefácio, Mishima faz a apreciação dos escritos de Bataille, destacando o aspecto do erotismo e do valor da transgressão de aspectos religiosos – eminentemente cristandade ocidental – na literatura. Para Mishima, a experiência da leitura de Bataille, ao colocar Deus sob a forma de uma prostituta lasciva e manifesto em um episódio de incesto entre mãe e filho, sentenciam o escrito de Bataille para além da narrativa clássica tão comum no século XX. Por ser um texto raro e de extrema importância tanto para os estudos literários, quanto para a fortuna crítica de ambos autores, empreendemos o gesto tradutório como forma de prover (sobre)vida ao escrito que, por si só, já demonstra sua irrefutável relevância histórica, literária e cultural
Georges Bataille e o nascimento da arte
No full textPartindo do livro La peinture préhistorique. Lascaux ou la naissance de l’art (O Nascimento da Arte), escrito entre 1953 e 1955 por Georges Bataille sobre as pinturas paleolíticas da gruta de Lascaux e dos restantes artigos, palestras e ensaios que o autor consagrou ao assunto, procurámos traçar a tentativa de aproximação de Bataille às pinturas mais misteriosas da História da Arte. Para além de descrever a maneira como um autor – Georges Bataille – olhou para e interpretou estas pinturas, procurámos compreender o que se esconde por trás dessa leitura, o que ela revela sobre o próprio e a maneira como ela é determinada por problemas gerais, relacionados com o contexto moderno no qual as pinturas foram descobertas. Segundo Bataille, quando o homem se separou do animal, instaurou uma cisão ontológica que o apartou definitivamente do reino animal, abrindo uma ferida impossível de sarar. Mas, dado que é um ser dialético, o homem pode retornar à origem dessa ferida, mergulhando momentaneamente na intimidade obscura do seu ser. Considerando o contexto histórico, político, filosófico e artístico que presidiu à escrita das obras de Georges Bataille, procurámos acoplar a análise do pensamento do escritor com as comoções que determinaram a primeira metade do séc. XX, nomeadamente a secularização da sociedade depois da “morte de Deus”, a perda de fé no racionalismo depois da Revolução Francesa, as Duas Guerras Mundiais e o anti-humanismo que lhes seguiu. Assumida a preocupação de Bataille com o sagrado na vida moderna, estabelecemos que o núcleo estruturante da sua obra escrita é caracterizado pela procura de modos de aceder à fonte sagrada da humanidade, trazida à luz pela aurora de Lascaux.Taking our departure from the book La peinture préhistorique. Lascaux ou la naissance de l’art (Prehistoric painting. Lascaux or the birth of art), written by Georges Bataille between 1953 and 1955 about the palaeolithic paintings present in the grotto of Lascaux, as well as the articles, essays and talks given by Bataille on the subject, we analysed the way in which the author tried to come close to a reading of these, the most mysterious paintings known to Art History. Besides describing how an author – Georges Bataille – looked at and interpreted these paintings, it was our aim to understand what hides behind such a reading, what it says about the author himself and how it is determined by more general problems, related to the modern context in which the paintings were discovered. In Bataille’s view, the separation of human being from animal being put in motion an ontological break that separated man irreversibly from the animal realm, hence openinga wound impossible to heal. However, since man is a dialectical being, it is possible for him to return to the origin of his wound and momentarily connect with his obscure truth. Considering the historical, political, philosophic, and artistic context that presided over the creation of Bataille’s literary corpus, we intertwined our reading of his thought with the commotions that determined the first half of the XX century, namely the secularization of society after the “death of God”, the loss of faith in rationality after the French Revolution, the two World Wars and the anti-humanism that gained its ground afterwards. Having assumed Bataille’s questioning around the place of the sacred in modern society, we established that the core of his literary work is defined by the search of ways to access humanity’s sacred primordial fountain, put to light by Lascaux’s
awakening
Georges Bataille et la question du corps mort
No full textLe mort hante l’oeuvre de Georges Bataille (1897-1962). Il y fait l’objet d’une description volontairement provocante. La raison en est simple : il appartient au monde du sacré. D’où les deux rites – l’un, affreux, l’autre, plus attendu – marquant son apparition : la nécrophilie et la veillée mortuaire. Ces deux rites, en apparence très différents, sont en fait identiques : ils soulignent la nécessité, comme l’a enseigné Hegel, un des maîtres à penser de Bataille, de garder à l’esprit la négativité de la mort. Situé dans le contexte actuel, Bataille a donc pressenti le « déni » de la mort et du mort qui caractérise, selon les spécialistes, la société contemporaine, déni que l’auteur de l’article illustre par son expérience personnelle (cas d’un village français affecté par la « déritualisation » des funérailles). Pour remédier à cette crise, Bataille propose le maintien d’une morale où le vivant ne se détourne pas du mort.Death haunts the works of Georges Bataille (1897-1962), where it is the object of deliberately provocative description. The reason for this is simple : death belongs to the world of the sacred. It is from here that we get the two rites – the one horrific, the other more expected – which mark its appearance : necrophilia and the wake. These two rites appear to be very different, but they are, in fact, identical : they both underline the necessity, as pointed out by Hegel, an inspiration to Bataille, of bearing in mind the negativity of death. Placed in a contemporary context, Bataille seems to have thus anticipated the “denial” of death and of the dead body which, according to the experts, characterizes today’s society, a denial which the author of the article illustrates through his personal experience (case of a French village affected by the “de-ritualization” of funerals). To remedy this crisis, Bataille proposes that the living not turn away from the dead
Georges Bataille/Roland Barthes: un gesto común: Ante las arrogancias del lenguaje
Get PDFThis paper seeks to reconsider certain passages in the work of Georges Bataille through a framework of Barthesian concerns. It highlights a shared movement in both authors regarding the relationship between power and language (Barthes) or subordination and discourse (Bataille). Barthes incorporates Bataille\u27s concept of the "scientific arrogances" in The Author\u27s Lexicon, The Neutral, and ‘Outcomes of the Text’ to simultaneously explore “discourses of intimidation” that aim to "grasp the other" through language, as well as the relationship between discipline, analysis, and metalanguage. This approach allows for a renewed reading of certain key passages in Bataille\u27s work, focusing on the modalities of discursive intimidation in his writing, and the moments of "excentration" of meaning as an enactment of sovereign operation.El trabajo busca repensar ciertos pasajes de la obra de Georges Bataille a partir de un conjunto de problemas barthesianos. Se señala un movimiento común en ambos autores frente al asunto de la relación entre poder y lenguaje (Barthes) o subordinación y discurso (Bataille). Barthes introduce la referencia batailleana acerca de las “arrogancias de la ciencia” en El Léxico del autor, Lo Neutro y “Las salidas del texto” para pensar simultáneamente los “discursos fulminantes” o “intimidantes” que buscan “asir-al-otro” en el lenguaje, y la relación entre disciplina, análisis y metalenguaje. Esa lectura permite volver a ciertos pasajes de la obra de Bataille, atendiendo a las modalidades de intimidación del discurso en su escritura, y las instancias de “excentración” del sentido como ocurrencia de una operación soberana
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