BATAILLE

This section is still being developed.

The following resources are not intended as a substitute for more substantial study of Marxism. They are here to provide a basic orientation about the ideas to which Bataille responds.

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has a great overview about Karl Marx. If you're like me and need guidance from secondary sources, I strongly recommend starting here. This overview of Marx's original thought will help you understand how his ideas and definitions cohere later.

For primary sources translated into English, it is best to use the translations from the Marx/Engels Collected Works (Lawrence and Wishart, 1936) or The Marx-Engels Reader (W. W. Norton, 1978). The first is more comprehensive, but the second is easier to obtain. Their translations are probably better than those found on the free Marxists Internet Archive. But despite its translation shortcomings, the Marxists Internet Archive has some simple and helpful recommendations in their Beginners Guide to Marxism. Its Marxists Internet Archive Encyclopedia is also helpful because it explains terms in simpler language and quotes from primary source documents. Although the encyclopedia is very comprehensive, I recommend focusing on the following terms and concepts, because they are frequently rehashed in Bataille's theory:

• Labor power, necessary and surplus labor time, and productive forces
• Materialism, dialectical materialism, and historical materialism
• Means of production and mode of production
• Value, surplus value, absolute and relative surplus value, use-value, and utility

If you have a more literary bent, you can also check out the Introduction to Marxism, an ancient site compiled by English professor Dino Franco Felluga. There are sections on Louis Althusser and Frederic Jameson, but you do not have to read those right now. It provides some definitions of terms and concepts of its own, though I would not say they are a substitute for the Marxists Internet Archive Encyclopedia.

Friedrich Nietzsche - R. Lanier Anderson, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (May 19, 2022)

The Gay Science - Friedrich Nietzsche, translated by Walter Kaufmann (1882)

Nietzsche's Life and Works - Robert Wicks, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (September 10, 2021)

Nietzsche's Moral and Political Philosophy - Brian Leiter, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (February 27, 2020)

Twilight of the Idols - Friedrich Nietzsche, translated by Walter Kaufmann and R.J. Hollingdale (1895)

The Will to Power - Friedrich Nietzsche, translated by Walter Kaufmann and R.J. Hollingdale (1901)

Try to see it my way... - Mark Hudson, The Guardian (April 22, 2006)

The 2006 art exhibition described in the article highlights Bataille's troubled relationship with Surrealism. For instance, Bataille considered Surrealism mistaken in its idealization of violence via art and its understanding of the unconscious as an "egalitarian force." The article also briefly mentions some biographical notes about him as well as modern artists influenced by his "transgressive" thought.

This list is not comprehensive. For a list of Bataille's writings and where to find their English translations, click here.

The Story of the Eye (1928)

Documents (1929-1930)

• The Big Toe (1929)

The Use Value of D. A. F. de Sade (1930)

The Cradle of Humanity: Prehistoric Art and Culture (1930-1959)

The Solar Anus (1931)

The Notion of Expenditure (1933)

The Psychological Structure of Fascism (1933)

See also John Brenkman's essay and Shannon Bell's lecture.

Acéphale (1936-1939)

• The Sacred Conspiracy (1936)
• Nietzsche and the Fascists (1937)

The Accursed Share (1949)

• Volume I (Consumption)
• Volume II (The History of Eroticism) and Volume III (Sovereignty)

The Cruel Practice of Art (1949)

Erotism: Death and Sensuality (1957)

This book's title is sometimes spelled Eroticism.

Literature and Evil (1957)

Bataille on Psychological Structure of Fascism - Shannon Bell, YouTube (January 8, 2020)

Shannon Bell's lecture at York University explains the historical context of "The Psychological Structure of Fascism," focusing on the homogeneous, the heterogeneous, and sovereignty. (Warning: the audio is very loud and harsh, and only works on the left side)

Introduction to Georges Bataille - John Brenkman, New German Critique (Winter 1979)

John Brenkman connects the essay "The Psychological Structure of Fascism" to class struggle of the 1930s, gift economies, and Bataille's actual opinions on fascism.