Georges Bataille

This short introduction to Georges Bataille’s work examines his philosophy and literature by identifying the central theories of transgression, sovereignty and/or subjectivity, sacrifice, art and/or aesthetic radicalism, general and restricted economies, as well as the profane and the sacred by way of eroticism and ecstasy. Bataille remains a singular and complex figure, an Outsider in poststructuralist, continental philosophy, and the complexities of his interdisciplinary approach to literature and theory compels this introduction to explore and explain his innovative and often controversial work as an impossible philosopher, as well as a philosopher of the Impossible.

Dr. Lynn Hughey Engelbert teaches philosophy at the University of Alberta and Athabasca University in Alberta, Canada. She has published a variety of essays regarding avant-garde philosophers and artists, and is concerned with postmodern aesthetics more generally. She is currently working on a book about the feminist sublime and its connection to Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari.

An Introduction: Georges Bataille and Impossibility
The General and Restricted Economies: Outsider Philosophy
Sovereignty, Transgression, and Power: Bataille’s Subject
Transgression, Art, and Surrealism: In-between the Avant-Garde and Literature
Outsider Literature(s) inside the Abyss
The Sacred/Profane or Eroticism/Ecstasy: Saint Bataille
A Conclusion for Bataille and the Anti-Aesthetic
Bibliography
Credits

Lynn Hughey Engelbert, Georges Bataille: An Epitome, Epitomes, 1 (Leeds: Kısmet Press, 2017)

Series: Epitomes, 1
Publication date: 2017
Place of Publication: Leeds
Publisher: Kısmet Press
ISBN: 978-0-9956717-3-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-9956717-4-4 (ebk)
144 pages
11.1 x 0.8 x 17.8 cm

Copyright © 2017 Lynn Hughey Engelbert

Published by Kismet Press LLP under an exclusive license to publish. Commercial copying, hiring, lending is prohibited. The book is freely available online at kismet.press under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license. See https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ for details.

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