Bataille, Georges

(1897-1962)

   writer

   Born in Billom, Puy-de-Dôme, Georges Bataille, persuaded that "authentic literature must be Promethean," sought to put that principle into all his work. A convert to Catholicism, then to Marxism, he was drawn to sociology and psychology and, borrowing their aesthetic techniques, combined them with oriental mysticism. His idea of society and history, based on the concept of transgression (La Part maudite, 1949; Lascaux ou la Naissance de l'art, 1955), his mystical experience, and his conception of literature (La Littérature et la Mal, 1957) are all apparent in his writings. Bataille proposed that, considering sexuality and death as disorder, society tries to remove them, but then turns to religion and contradiction (L'Érotisme, 1957). Bataille also wrote a trilogy: Somme athéologique (L'Éxperience intérieure, 1943; La Coupable, 1944, Sur Nietzsche, 1945). His other works include L'Abbé C (1950), Histoire de l'œil (1928), Anus solaire (1931), Alleluiah (1947), Le Bleu de ciel (written in 1935, published in 1957), Madame Edwarda (1941), and L'Impossible (1962).