In search of the lost continuity: eroticism and death in Georges Bataille

Abstract

The present work expounds the philosophical anthropology proposed by the philosopher Georges Bataille (1897-1962), who affirms that man is a dilacerated being between continuity and discontinuity – we are beings who possess individuality and soon we will die, however we have a nostalgia for the lost continuity with the advent of subjectivity, which was only possible by the world of work. The animal-man became man by the way of the interdicts: prohibition of acts related to death and to sex. However, it were the interdicts who possibilited the transgression, which made man return to its original animal stage. None of these poles can be completely erased: both of them are necessary to the human being. It appears now two ways to return to the lost continuity: eroticism or death, and both, in their most excessive form, get each other confused, the terrifying vision is the most attractive and desired. We pretend to analyze firstly the eroticism in general, so we can see in what sense it is an interior experience. With that done, we can equate it to death, and more precisely to sacrifice, demonstrating how violence is present in the act of love. We have, as the conclusion, that both death and eroticism challenge individuality, but death only does so permanently, while eroticism does it temporally.