Erotism : death & sensuality / Georges Bataille ; translated by Mary Dalwood.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bataille, Georges, 1897-1962.

Standardized Title:

Erotisme. English

Language:

English

French

Subjects (All):

Sex--Religious aspects.

Sex.

Sex (Psychology).

Taboo.

Death.

Physical Description:

276 pages, 4 unnumbered pages ; 20 cm

Edition:

First City lights edition.

Other Title:

Eroticism.

Place of Publication:

San Francisco : City Lights Books, 1986.

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Eroticism in inner experience

The link between taboos and death

Taboos related to reproduction

Affinities between reproduction and death

Transgression

Murder, hunting and war

Murder and sacrifice

From religious sacrifice to eroticism

Sexual plethora and death

Transgression in marriage and in orgy

Christianity

The object of desire : prostitution

Beauty

Kinsey, the underworld and work

De Sade's sovereign man

De Sade and the normal man

The enigma of incest

Mysticism and sensuality

Sanctity, eroticism and solitude

A preface to 'Madame Edwarda".

Notes:

Translation of: L'érotisme.

Reprint. Originally published: Death and sensuality. New York : Walker, 1962.

Bibliography: pages [277]-[278].

Includes index.

ISBN:

0872861902

OCLC:

13560896