Bataille, Georges (Writer)

 
(1897-1962) novelist, essayist

Often called the “metaphysician of evil” because of his interests in sex, death, and the obscene, Georges Bataille was born in Billon, Puy-de-Dome, France. His childhood was difficult because his mother repeatedly attempted suicide, and his father, whom Bataille dearly loved, became both blind and paralyzed as a result of syphilis before he died.

Bataille converted to Catholicism just prior to World War I and served in the army from 1916 to 1917. Troubled by poor health throughout his life as well as by recurring periods of depression, he was discharged from the army as a result of tuberculosis. He joined a seminary, thinking of becoming a priest, and spent time with a Benedictine congregation, but he soon experienced a profound loss of faith. He continued his education at the Ecole des Chartres, writing his thesis in 1922 on 13th-century verse.

Bataille aligned himself early on with surrealism, but he considered himself to be the “enemy from within.” Andre breton officially excommunicated Bataille from the movement. After a period of psychoanalysis, Bataille began to write. He founded several journals and was the first to publish innovative thinkers such as Barthes, Fou-cault, and Derrida.

Bataille rejected the traditional, believing that all artistic and intellectual pursuits should ultimately focus on the violent annihilation of the rational individual. His work was greatly influenced by both Friedrich nietzsche and Gilles de Rais, a 15th-century serial killer. All of Bataille’s writings deal with violence and sexuality. His best known erotic works are The Story of the Eye (1928), Blue of Noon (1945), and The Abbot C. (1950). Bataille believed pornography was a means of understanding the relation between life and death. The Story of the Eye, which he wrote under the pseudonym Lord Auch, for example, is the story of a young couple who test the boundaries of sexual taboos, escalating to extreme playing out of sexual fantasies. The novel quickly gained and still maintains a cult status decades after Bataille’s death in Paris on July 8.

Other Works by Georges Bataille

Eroticism: Death and Sensuality. Translated by Mary Dalwood. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1991.

The Unfinished System of Nonknowledge. Translated by Michelle Kendall and Stuart Kendall. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001.

Works about Georges Bataille

Champagne, Roland A. Georges Bataille. Boston: Twayne, 1998.

Surya, Michel. Georges Bataille: An Intellectual Biography. Translated by Krysztof Kijalkowski and Michael Richardson. New York: Verso, 2002.

Next post:

Previous post: