Georges Bataille

by Roland A. Champagne

Georges Bataille (1897-1962) did not receive the accolades his work deserved during his lifetime. Today, most of his writings have been translated into English due to the popularity of his ideas to the generation of writer-intellectuals who have come to be known as "post-structuralists." Bataille's work, however, contains a much broader vision than that attributed to him by the post-structuralists. Roland Champagne presents here the overall scale of Bataille's work through an exposure of its five major components: his biography, the influences on his work, an overview of the "general economy" of his writings, the appropriations of his writings by major intellectuals, and the overlooked affirmations of Bataille. Georges Bataille is a vital overview of Bataille's life and work. Included in the volume are a Preface, Acknowledgments, Chronology, Notes and References, Lexicon of Bataille's most common terms, Selected Bibliography, and Index.