Obsessions of Georges Bataille, The

Book excerpt: Featuring a new translation of Jean-Luc Nancy's "Confronted Community" and three essays by Bataille on community and communication available here in English for the first time, The Obsessions of Georges Bataille offers an indispensable account of Bataille's work. Despite the influence of Bataille on French continental thought, his ideas remain famously obscure. This volume clarifies them by approaching Bataille's thought through the themes of community and communication. Taking up the dialogue of Nancy and Maurice Blanchot on Bataille's ideas about community, the essays engage the many perspectives from which he approaches community: encouraging greater community, expressing concern with community, and addressing the connections between community and one's inner experience. Communication is brought out not as a singular activity, but as a collective natural state—a medium for human expression and relations.