Main entry:

Bataille, Georges, 1897-1962.

Title & Author:

The absence of myth : writings on surrealism / Georges Bataille ; edited, translated, and introduced by Michael Richardson.

Publication:

London ; New York : Verso, ©1994.

Description:

vii, 211 pages ; 25 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
The castrated lion -- Notes on the publication of 'Un cadavre' -- Surrealism from day to day -- The absence of myth -- On the subject of slumbers -- The surrealist revolution -- Surrealism -- Surrealism and how it differs from existentialism -- Surrealism in 1947 -- The surrealist religion -- Initial postulate -- Take it or leave it -- The problems of surrealism -- The moral meaning of sociology -- War and the philosophy of the sacred -- Poetry and the temptation of the end of the world -- Henri Pastoureau : La blessure de l'homme -- René Char and the force of poetry -- Max Ernst, philosopher! -- From the stone age to Jacques Prévert -- André Breton : ode to Charles Fourier -- The age of revolt -- André Masson -- Surrealism and God -- Happiness, eroticism and literature.
Current Copyright Fee: GBP23.00 0.
Translated from the French.
Dust jacket.

Summary:

'Surrealism', wrote Georges Bataille in 1945, 'has from the start given consistency to a "morality of revolt" and its most important contribution - important perhaps even in the political realm - is to have remained, in matters of morality, a revolution.'. For Bataille, 'the absence of myth' had itself become the myth of the modern age. In a world that had 'lost the secret of its cohesion', Bataille saw surrealism as both a symptom and the beginning of an attempt to address this loss. His writings on this theme - which he had hoped to assemble into a book and which are published here for the first time - mostly date from the immediate postwar period, and are the result of profound reflection in the wake of World War Two. In one respect they represent preliminary notes for his later work, especially for The Accursed Share and Theory of Religion. But many of the issues raised were never taken up again; therefore they offer a fresh perspective on his thinking at a decisive time. Together, these texts also comprise perhaps the most incisive study yet made of surrealism, insisting on its importance as a cultural and social phenomenon with far-reaching consequences. They clarify Bataille's links with the surrealist movement, and throw revealing light on his complex and greatly misunderstood relationship with Andre Breton. Above all, The Absence of Myth shows Bataille to be a much more radical figure than his postmodernist devotees would have us believe: a man who continually tried to extend Marxist social theory; a pessimistic thinker, but one as far removed from nihilism as can be.

Resources:
Publisher description

ISBN:

0860914194
9780860914198
(pbk.)
0860914673

Subject:

Bataille, Georges, 1897-1962.
Avant-garde (Aesthetics)
Surrealism.
Surréalisme.
Surrealist.
Surrealismus
Surrealisme.
Avant-garde.
Postmodernism

Added entries:

Richardson, Michael, 1953-

Holdings:

Location: Library main 126478
Call No.: ID BH301.A94.B3; ID:97-B1086
Status: Available