The Accursed Share, Volumes II & IIIThe three volumes of The Accursed Share address what Georges Bataille sees as the paradox of utility: namely, if being useful means serving a further end, then the ultimate end of utility can only be uselessness. The first volume of The Accursed Share, the only one published before Bataille's death, treated this paradox in economic terms, showing that "it is not necessity but its contrary, luxury, that presents living matter and mankind with their fundamental problems." This Zone edition includes in a single volume a reconstruction, based on the versions published in Bataille's posthumous collected works, of his intended continuation of The Accursed Share.In the second and third volumes, The History of Eroticism and Sovereignty, Bataille explores the same paradox of utility, respectively from an anthropological and an ethical perspective. He first analyzes the fears and fascination, the prohibitions and the transgressions attached to the realm of eroticism as so many expressions of the "uselessness" of erotic life. It is just this expenditure of excess energy that demarcates the realm of human autonomy, of independence relative to "useful" ends. The study of eroticism therefore leads naturally to the examination of human sovereignty, in which Bataille defines the sovereign individual as one who consumes and does not labor, creating a life beyond the realm of utility.Georges Bataille, a philosopher and novelist sui generis, died in 1962. |
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accumulation Accursed Share activity affirmation André Gide anguish animal appears archaic aspect basic behavior bourgeois bourgeoisie character communism communist concern consciousness considered consumption contrary death define deny Deutscher dignity Dionysus divine domain doubtless ereign ereignty erotic eroticism essentially existence fact feeling festival feudal finally Gay Science Gide give given Hegel horror human Ibid imagine incest individual love insofar Jesus king labor law of value least less Lévi-Strauss limits longer Maenad marriage Marxist matter means of production miraculous moral Moreover movement nature negation negative theology never Nietzsche Nietzsche's nonetheless nudity opposed opposition orgy ourselves position possible principle problem profane prohibition proletarian question reason reduced repugnance revolution rules sacred Sade seems sense servile sexual social society sover sovereign art sovereign value sovereignty speak Stalin subordinate things thought tion transgression true truth Walter Kaufmann Zarathustra