Georges Bataille

September 10, 1897 — Billom, France

Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille was a French intellectual and literary figure working in literature, philosophy, anthropology, economics, sociology and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels, and poetry, explored such subjects as eroticism, mysticism, surrealism, and transgression. In the 1920, Bataille began frequenting the circles of Surrealists, he discovered he had an ideological dispute with the views of the influential Andre Breton, and he began calling himself “an enemy from within the movement”. During this period, Georges began taking psychoanalytical treatments which were successful and enabled him to write. He edited and formulated several works on sociology, literature and religion. He did various excursions on Barthes, Foucault and Derrida. In 1935, Bataille was among the co-founders of an anti-Fascist group, Contre Attaque. In 1939, Bataille also co-founded along with Michel Lieris and Roger Callois, the College de Sociologie. He also held a fellowship at the School of Advanced Hispanic Studies in Madrid. Bataille published his first novel on sexual excess, ‘Histoire de l’oeil’ (The Story of the Eye) in 1928, under the pseudonym of Lord Auch.