Georges Bataille: A Body in Motion

Daniel West, Oberlin CollegeFollow

Location

King Building 321

Document Type

Presentation

Start Date

4-28-2017 3:00 PM

End Date

4-28-2017 4:20 PM

Abstract

Georges Bataille (1897 - 1962) archivist, editor, sociologist, philosopher, pamphleteer and writer of avant garde and erotic fiction has become one of the major antecedents to the contemporary age of critical theory. His work seems to address as many subjects as possible, and lend to each a bizarre, but full-bodied response. As an independent social scientist, he brought novel insights into the realms of religious and sexual studies. As a political analyst, he sought a “third position” between fascism and communism. As an editor, he sought to unify the publication of French’s academic and outré voices. And yet, it is his penchant for the weird, the extreme and the taboo in his attempts to refound erotic and mythological prose that has seemed to rise to the surface, in spite of its relative obscurity, if not suppression during the life of the author. This presentation will attempt to explain why I think this is the case, as well as what this implies for readers of this diffuse yet powerful body of work.

Keywords:

French literature, philosophy, religion, comparative literautre

Notes

Session II, Panel 8 - Literary | Comparisons
Moderator: Jed Deppman, Professor of Comparative Literature and English

Major

Comparative Literature

Advisor(s)

Jed Deppman, Comparative Literature; English

Project Mentor(s)

Jed Deppman, Comparative Literature
Claire Solomon, Hispanic Studies

April 2017

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Apr 28th, 3:00 PM Apr 28th, 4:20 PM

Georges Bataille: A Body in Motion

King Building 321

Georges Bataille (1897 - 1962) archivist, editor, sociologist, philosopher, pamphleteer and writer of avant garde and erotic fiction has become one of the major antecedents to the contemporary age of critical theory. His work seems to address as many subjects as possible, and lend to each a bizarre, but full-bodied response. As an independent social scientist, he brought novel insights into the realms of religious and sexual studies. As a political analyst, he sought a “third position” between fascism and communism. As an editor, he sought to unify the publication of French’s academic and outré voices. And yet, it is his penchant for the weird, the extreme and the taboo in his attempts to refound erotic and mythological prose that has seemed to rise to the surface, in spite of its relative obscurity, if not suppression during the life of the author. This presentation will attempt to explain why I think this is the case, as well as what this implies for readers of this diffuse yet powerful body of work.