The Accursed Share: ConsumptionZone Books, 1988 Most Anglo-American readers know Bataille as a novelist. The "Accursed Share "provides an excellent introduction to Bataille the philosopher. Here he uses his unique economic theory as the basis for an incisive inquiry into the very nature of civilization. Unlike conventional economic models based on notions of scarcity, Bataille's theory develops the concept of excess: a civilization, he argues, reveals its order most clearly in the treatment of its surplus energy. The result is a brilliant blend of ethics, aesthetics, and cultural anthropology that challenges both mainstream economics and ethnology. The 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, 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." In the second and third volumes, "The History of Eroticism" and "Sovereignty", Bataille explores the same paradox of utility from an anthropological and an ethical perspective, respectively. "The History of Eroticism" analyzes the fears and fascination, the prohibitions and transgressions attached to the realm of eroticism as so many expressions of the "uselessness" of erotic life. In the third volume, Bataille raises the ethical problems of sovereignty, of "the independence of man relative to useful ends." |
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Página 45
... works . In the same way , the face of a man changes if he goes from the turbulence of the night to the serious business of the morn- ing . The serious humanity of growth becomes civilized , 45 Sacrifices and Wars of the Aztecs.
... works . In the same way , the face of a man changes if he goes from the turbulence of the night to the serious business of the morn- ing . The serious humanity of growth becomes civilized , 45 Sacrifices and Wars of the Aztecs.
Página 46
... Aztec Worldview The Aztecs , about whom I will speak first , are poles apart from us morally . As a civilization is judged by its works , their civiliza- tion seems wretched to us . They used writing and were versed in astronomy , but ...
... Aztec Worldview The Aztecs , about whom I will speak first , are poles apart from us morally . As a civilization is judged by its works , their civiliza- tion seems wretched to us . They used writing and were versed in astronomy , but ...
Página 55
... Aztecs , in the direction of the rationality of enterprise ( which introduces , together with the concern for results and for effective force , a beginning of humanity ) as against the cruel violence of consumption . While " the king ...
... Aztecs , in the direction of the rationality of enterprise ( which introduces , together with the concern for results and for effective force , a beginning of humanity ) as against the cruel violence of consumption . While " the king ...
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accumulation Accursed Share action activity amban anguish animal Aztecs Bernardino de Sahagún bourgeois Calvinism capitalism capitalist ceased Charles Bell Chinese communist conquest consequences considered consumption contrary Dalai Lama death defined demands destroyed dissipated divine dominated economy effect energy enterprise excess expenditure exuberance fact festival François Perroux freedom gift give given grasp growth human Ibid immense increase individual industrial interest intimacy Islam isolated labor Lamaism less Lhasa limits luxury man's Marshall Plan Marxism meaning ment military monks moral Moreover Moslem movement Nanauatzin necessity negation nonproductive object offered operation opposed opposition organization paradoxical political possible potlatch precisely principle problem productive forces profit R.H. Tawney reduced religion religious result revolution rich rigor Russian sacrifice self-consciousness sense share social society solution Soviet Soviet Union squandering Stalinism subordinated surplus Tawney things thirteenth Dalai Lama Tibet Tibetan tion truth USSR victims violence wealth