Understanding Bataille

Bataille's various forms of expression, ranging from the hallucinatory fictional narrative to the fragment and the theoretical essay, have always exerted a mostly subterranean influence on literature, philosophy, the humanities and the arts. The variation of his interests and the issues they raise are animated by a profound unity, and testify to a keen sense of the problems that plague our common humanity. Following a path marked out by a few entries characteristic of a non-systematic way of thinking, this book invites us to gain a better understanding of what Bataille calls "e;sovereignty"e;, which is both an experience of thought and of life that is salutary for us here and now.