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DEATH, A SURREPTITIOUS FRIENDSHIP

DEATH, A SURREPTITIOUS FRIENDSHIP Abstract This article explores the friendship of Maurice Blanchot and Georges Bataille through a close reading of their thought on death and dying. An intellectual and personal friendship, both conceived of death as an “impossible” space and “limit-experience” that not only constituted human subjectivity, but could also puncture it, leading to joy through deindividuation. This could only occur indirectly – for Bataille, via the sacrifice, eroticism, drunkenness or laughter – and for Blanchot, via literature. This line of thinking leads to varying formulations of sovereignty at odds with the prosaic world of use-value. Proceeding first through their friendship, this paper then explores this thinking death through the contexts of French Hegelianism, Kojève and Heidegger. While holding much similar, the paper argues that Bataille’s transgressive, embodied and deindividuating visions of death present a form of community that was overlooked by Blanchot subsequently, with consequences for theories of community and collective power today. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical Humanities Taylor & Francis

DEATH, A SURREPTITIOUS FRIENDSHIP

Taylor, Dan
Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical Humanities , Volume 25 (6): 16 – Nov 1, 2020
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DEATH, A SURREPTITIOUS FRIENDSHIP

Abstract

Abstract This article explores the friendship of Maurice Blanchot and Georges Bataille through a close reading of their thought on death and dying. An intellectual and personal friendship, both conceived of death as an “impossible” space and “limit-experience” that not only constituted human subjectivity, but could also puncture it, leading to joy through deindividuation. This could only occur indirectly – for Bataille, via the sacrifice, eroticism, drunkenness...
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Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
ISSN
1469-2899
eISSN
0969-725X
DOI
10.1080/0969725X.2020.1838720
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Abstract This article explores the friendship of Maurice Blanchot and Georges Bataille through a close reading of their thought on death and dying. An intellectual and personal friendship, both conceived of death as an “impossible” space and “limit-experience” that not only constituted human subjectivity, but could also puncture it, leading to joy through deindividuation. This could only occur indirectly – for Bataille, via the sacrifice, eroticism, drunkenness or laughter – and for Blanchot, via literature. This line of thinking leads to varying formulations of sovereignty at odds with the prosaic world of use-value. Proceeding first through their friendship, this paper then explores this thinking death through the contexts of French Hegelianism, Kojève and Heidegger. While holding much similar, the paper argues that Bataille’s transgressive, embodied and deindividuating visions of death present a form of community that was overlooked by Blanchot subsequently, with consequences for theories of community and collective power today.

Journal

Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical Humanities – Taylor & Francis

Published: Nov 1, 2020

Keywords: death; sacrifice; Bataille; Blanchot; Kojève

References

  • Gifts Without Presents: Economies of ‘Experience’ in Bataille and Heidegger
  • Friendship, Asymmetry, Sacrifice: Bataille and Blanchot
  • Abandon Hope (Summer is Coming)