Georges Bataille (1897–1962) is still probably best known as writer of erotic fiction and as a precursor of poststructuralism, but what do we really know about Bataille?

The other three were credited to Lord Auch, a pseudonym ex­ plained in Bataille's short prose piece Le Petit (1943). (This section from Le Petit is included at the end of this volume.)

The present study offers an explanation for the metaphysics that characterizes the prevailing notion of sovereignty via insights provided by Bataille. The study focuses on the ontological implications to …

Georges Bataille, "The Big Toe" (1929). Translated by Allan Stoekl, with Carl R. Lovitt and Donald M. Leslie, Jr. Excerpted from Visions of Excess: Selected Writings, 1927-1939, Minneapolis: UMP, 1985.

In Bataille’s analysis of both social life and human condition, the irrational drive to consume and destroy is contrasted with the rational desire to maintain a homogenous order in our perception of the world.

xample of the 'logic' of base materialism in Bataille's brief essay 'The Big Toe' (1985, pp. 20-23), first published in November 1929. In that essay Bataille explained how the capacity for man to stand upright,

Bataille's more untranslatable terms in Inner Experience. Mark Taylor was helpful in the organ zation of this project and in evaluating my introduction. Two ol my colleagues at Brock also merit special …