The Accursed Share, Volume I: Volume 1: Consumption

Author: Georges Bataille

Stock information

General Fields

  • : $39.95 AUD
  • : 9780942299113
  • : Zone Books
  • : Zone Books
  • : May 1991
  • : 39.99
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  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Georges Bataille
  • : BC
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Barcode 9780942299113
9780942299113

Description

Most Anglo-American readers know Bataille as a novelist. The Accursed Share provides an excellent introduction to Bataille the philosopher. Here he uses his unique economic theory as the basis for an incisive inquiry into the very nature of civilization. Unlike conventional economic models based on notions of scarcity, Bataille's theory develops the concept of excess: a civilization, he argues, reveals its order most clearly in the treatment of its surplus energy. The result is a brilliant blend of ethics, aesthetics, and cultural anthropology that challenges both mainstream economics and ethnology.