Georges Bataille 1897 – 1962
Georges Bataille was a French philosopher, novelist, and librarian whose work occupied a singular position at the edges of surrealism, sociology, and the history of religions. After training as a medievalist at the Ecole des Chartes, he spent his career at the Bibliotheque Nationale and in the provincial libraries of Orleans and Carpentras while founding journals and clandestine groups. His major philosophical works, including Inner Experience, The Accursed Share, and Eroticism, articulated a general economy in which expenditure, sacrifice, and the sacred play a more fundamental role than production and utility. He shaped the work of Foucault, Derrida, and Baudrillard.
Key facts
- Nationality
- French
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Post-Structuralism, Continental
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Georges Bataille:
“Sovereignty is the refusal to accept the limits that the fear of death would impose.”
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Attributed to Georges Bataille:
“Eroticism is the assenting to life up to the point of death.”
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Attributed to Georges Bataille:
“What we cannot grasp is the point of greatest importance.”
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Attributed to Georges Bataille:
“The economy of expenditure is more fundamental than the economy of production.”
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Attributed to Georges Bataille:
“Communication takes place through the wound, not through the seal.”