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The Unfinished System of Nonknowledge Georges Bataille |
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$70.50 Cloth/jacket |
A major work by one of the twentieth century's most important philosophers. A deft reconstruction of what Georges Bataille envisioned as a continuation of his work La Somme Athéologique, this volume brings together the writings of one of the foremost French thinkers of the twentieth century on the central topic of his oeuvre. Gathering Bataille's most intimate writings, these essays, aphorisms, notes, and lectures on nonknowledge, sovereignty, and sacrifice clarify and extend Bataille's radical theology, his philosophy of history, and his ecstatic method of meditation. Following Bataille's lead, as laid out in his notebooks, editor Stuart Kendall assembles the fragments that Bataille anticipated collecting for his summa. Kendall's introduction offers a clear picture of the author's overall project, its historical and biographical context, and the place of these works within it. The "system" that emerges from these articles, notes, and lectures is "atheology," understood as a study of the effects of nonknowledge. At the other side of realism, Bataille's writing in La Somme pushes language to its silent end. And yet, writing toward the ruin of language, in search of words that slip from their meanings, Bataille uses language—and the discourses of theology, philosophy, and literature—against itself to return us to ourselves, endlessly. The system against systems is in fact systematic, using systems and depending on discourses to achieve its own ends-the end of systematic thought. “What The Unfinished System of Nonknowledge proper offers and which cannot be found, in any language at such high density, is a sustained meditation on non-knowing.” —Philosophy in Review “Georges Bataille stands out as one of the most enigmatic, often misunderstood, and yet profoundly influential intellectuals of the last hundred years. This remains a valuable collection of the works of one of the most disturbing but also most important thinkers of the last hundred years. As such, it should be of real interest not only to philosophical and literary critics, but also to scholars of religion and to al others struggling to recover spiritual value in a world torn by violence and chaos.” —Southern Humanities Review "Georges Bataille is one of the most original and unsettling of those thinkers who, in the wake of Sade and Nietzsche, have confronted the possibility of thought in a world that has lost its myth of transcendence." —Peter Brooks, New York Times Book Review "Bataille is one of the most important writers of his century. . . . We owe Bataille a great deal of our present moment, though we doubtless still owe him what remains to be done, thought and said, and will for a long time." —Michel Foucault "Bataille denudes himself, exposes himself. His exhibitionism aims at destroying all literature. He has a holocaust of words. . . . Bataille speaks about man's condition, not his nature." —Jean-Paul Sartre A medievalist librarian by training, Georges Bataille (1897-1962) was active in the French intellectual scene from the 1920s through the 1950s. He founded the journal Critique and was a member of the Acéphale group and the Collège de sociologie. Among his works available in English are Visions of Excess (1985), Tears of Eros (1989), and Erotism (1990). Stuart Kendall and Michelle Kendall are freelance translators who live in Stony Brook, New York. 296 pages | 5 7/8 x 9 | 2001 TABLE OF CONTENTS Editor’s Introduction: Unlimited Assemblage Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V Part VI Part VII Part VIII Notes |
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$23.50 Paper