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The accursed share : an essay on general economy / Georges Bataille ; translated by Robert Hurley.
Author
Bataille, Georges, 1897-1962
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Uniform title
Part maudite.
English
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Format
Book
Language
English
Published/Created
New York : Zone Books, 1988-1991.
Description
3 volumes in 2
Availability
Copies in the Library
Location
Call Number
Status
Location Service
Notes
Architecture Library - Stacks
HB173 .B35513 1991
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Vol. 1-v. 3 (published in 1993)
Firestone Library - Religion Graduate Study Room
HB173 .B35513 1991
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Vol. 1-v. 3 (published in 1993)
Firestone Library - Stacks
HB173 .B35513 1991
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Vol. 1-v. 3 (published in 1993)
Forrestal Annex - Reserve
HB173 .B35513 1991
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Vol. 1-v. 2-3
Forrestal Annex - Reserve
HB173 .B35513 1991
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Vol. 1
Details
Subject(s)
Economics
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Economic history
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Economics
—
Moral and ethical aspects
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Summary note
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. The three volumes of "The Accursed Share" address what Georges Bataille sees as the paradox of utility: namely, if being useful means serving a further end, then the ultimate end of utility can only be uselessness. The first volume, the only one published before Bataille's death, treated this paradox in economic terms, showing that "it is not necessity but its contrary, luxury, that presents living matter and mankind with their fundamental problems." In the second and third volumes, "The History of Eroticism" and "Sovereignty", Bataille explores the same paradox of utility from an anthropological and an ethical perspective, respectively. "The History of Eroticism" analyzes the fears and fascination, the prohibitions and transgressions attached to the realm of eroticism as so many expressions of the "uselessness" of erotic life. In the third volume, Bataille raises the ethical problems of sovereignty, of "the independence of man relative to useful ends."
Notes
Translation of: La part maudite.
Bibliographic references
Includes bibliographical references.
Contents
v. 1. Consumption
v. 2-3. The history of eroticism. Sovereignty.
ISBN
0942299116 ((v. 1, pbk.))
9780942299113 ((v. 1, pbk.))
0942299213 ((v. 2 & 3, pbk.))
9780942299212 ((v. 2 & 3, pbk.))
OCLC
639864961
Statement on language in description
Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage.
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The accursed share : an essay on general economy / Georges Bataille ; translated by Robert Hurley.
id
994643693506421
The accursed share : an essay on general economy / Georges Bataille ; translated by Robert Hurley.
id
SCSB-2642656