Bataille, Georges

Bataille, Georges (jôrj bətī, -bätī), 1897–1962, French writer. Bataille was the founding editor of the journal Critique (1946). Strongly influenced by Nietzsche, he focuses on extreme states of consciousness (violence and eroticism) as forms of mediation between nature and culture. He presents his ideas in his critical essay Literature and Evil (1957, tr. 1973) and the novel Story of the Eye (1949, tr. 1987), among other works.

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Bataille, Georges

(born Sept. 10, 1897, Billom, France—died July 9, 1962, Paris) French librarian and writer. He trained as an archivist and worked at the Bibliothèque Nationale and at the Orléans library. He wrote a number of novels under pseudonyms before publishing Le Coupable (1944; Guilty) under his own name. His novels, essays, and poetry show a fascination with eroticism, mysticism, violence, and an ideal of excess and waste. In 1946 he founded the influential literary review Critique, which he edited until his death.