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Title	:	Erotism: Death and Sensuality
Author	:	Georges Bataille
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	Special Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 288 pages
Published	:	January 1st 2001 by City Lights Publishers (first published 1957)
Categories	:	Philosophy. Nonfiction. Theory. Sexuality. Cultural. France

Erotism: Death and Sensuality

Georges Bataille

Paperback | Pages: 288 pages

Rating: 4.11 | 2269 Users | 94 Reviews

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Taboo and sacrifice, transgression and language, death and sensuality—Georges Bataille pursues these themes with an original, often startling perspective. He challenges any single discourse on the erotic. The scope of his inquiry ranges from Emily Bronte to Sade, from St. Therese to Claude Levi-Strauss, and Dr. Kinsey; and the subjects he covers include prostitution, mythical ecstasy, cruelty, and organized war. Investigating desire prior to and extending beyond the realm of sexuality, he argues that eroticism is "a psychological quest not alien to death."

" . . . 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 the century." — Michel Foucault

"[An] urgent, thrusting book about love, sex, death and spirituality by Georges Bataille." — Mark Price, Philosophy Now

Mention Books In Pursuance Of Erotism: Death and Sensuality

Original Title:	L'Érotisme
ISBN:	0872861902 (ISBN13: 9780872861909)
Edition Language:	English

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Ratings: 4.11 From 2269 Users | 94 Reviews

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French philosophy that breaks down taboos, death, and sex. Check it out.

Wandering and banal, Bataille has two novel insights in this book. The first deals with de Sade in a way that altered my perception of the late Marquis. The other discusses the Kinsey reports, both their value and the degree to which they missed the mark about human sexuality. The rest of the book discusses taboo, organized and sanctioned (sanctified) transgressions, and the ties to eroticism. In my first reading, I missed any deep message that he intended and thought that most of his points

Yes.

This is a fantastic book. One of Bataille's best, in my opinion. The investigation of early religion and the relationship between religious and sexual experiences sets the stage for an understanding of Bataille's project, its relation to sacrifice and mystical experience. I taught this twice: once for Philosophy & Literature, once as a part of world religions. It completely freaked out the World Religions class. I doubt most people read it in the Philosophy & Lit course.

Oh, those French! I picked this one up because I'd heard folks talk learnedly about Bataille in the same breath as Derrida, Lacan and Foucault and wanted to know what the fuss was about. Reading the cover blurb and looking at the table of contents I went on to formulate an expectation of finally finding out where people like deSade were coming from--a mystery since I covertly first read Dad's Grove Press edition in early adolescence. Well, although I found tidbits of interest herein, I did not

I would give this book five stars for part one alone. I loved reading Bataille's theories on taboo and transgression. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in the origins of religion, ritual, sacrifice etc.Part two is a collection of related essays and unfortunately didn't hold my interest to the same extent. After reading the first essay I skimmed through one or two others before putting the book down altogether.

Employing structuralist-anthropological categories like the taboo and transgression, and existential categories like anguish, nausea and horror, this philosophical work on human sexuality analyzes eroticism in terms of violence, religion and death. In the latter half of the book, Bataille comments on others who have written on human sexuality. For instance, he writes critically of Alfred Kinsey's Sexual Behavior In The Human Male, Volume 2, which came out only three years before Bataille wrote