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The Absence of Myth: Writings on Surrealism
For Bataille, the absence of myth had itself become the myth of the modern age. In a world that had lost the secret of its cohesion, Bataille saw surrealism as both a symptom and a beginning of an attempt to address this loss. His writings on this theme are the result of a profound reflection in the wake of World War Two.
The Absence of Myth is the most incisive study yet made of surrealism, insisting on its importance as a cultural and social phenomenon with far-reaching consequences. Clarifying Bataille’s links with the surrealist movement, and throwing revealing light on his complex and greatly misunderstood relationship with Andre Breton, The Absence of Myth shows Bataille to be a much more radical figure than his postmodernist devotees would have us a man who continually tried to extend Marxist social theory; a pessimistic thinker, but one as far removed from nihilism as can be.
The Absence of Myth is the most incisive study yet made of surrealism, insisting on its importance as a cultural and social phenomenon with far-reaching consequences. Clarifying Bataille’s links with the surrealist movement, and throwing revealing light on his complex and greatly misunderstood relationship with Andre Breton, The Absence of Myth shows Bataille to be a much more radical figure than his postmodernist devotees would have us a man who continually tried to extend Marxist social theory; a pessimistic thinker, but one as far removed from nihilism as can be.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
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About the author
Georges Bataille
232 books2,516 followersFrench essayist, philosophical theorist, and novelist, often called the "metaphysician of evil." Bataille was interested in sex, death, degradation, and the power and potential of the obscene. He rejected traditional literature and considered that the ultimate aim of all intellectual, artistic, or religious activity should be the annihilation of the rational individual in a violent, transcendental act of communion. Roland Barthes, Julia Kristeva, and Philippe Sollers have all written enthusiastically about his work.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
April 28, 2021
Bataille is a secret simp for Breton. I hope they madeout angrily at least once.
July 4, 2022
Like Salvador Dali, Luis Buñuel and Antonin Artaud, Georges Bataille was associated for a time with the surrealist movement. In this book of essays, in addition to reviewing the work of other surrealists and commenting on his own personal experiences in the movement (including his disagreements with and defences of Andre Breton), Bataille supplies a philosophical and sometimes almost anthropological analysis of the significance of surrealism.
Bataille characterizes the modern human condition as a loss of the experience of the sacred, or an “absence of myth.” Nietzsche’s pronouncement in The Gay Science that “God is dead” is perhaps only the most explicit expression of this loss. It is this historical condition that makes possible the emergence of surrealism which, argues Bataille, can restore the connection to the sacred; in this respect, surrealism could be thought of as a modern religion.
For Bataille, both the sacred and the surreal are forms of the non-utilitarian. He employs the example of poetry to describe more fully the concept of the non-utilitarian; however, he adds that surrealism, insofar as it supplies experience of the sacred, is beyond poetry, and cannot be reduced to the merely literary. As a form of the non-utilitarian, surrealism can also be associated with freedom, and with revolt, which latter theme links his essays here with his later writings on taboo and the infringement of laws. In writing here of freedom, it is possible that Bataille wished to distinguish the non-utilitarian freedom of surrealism from the notion of freedom becoming popular with the emergence of the existentialist thought of writers like Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Albert Camus in the 1940s; one particularly good essay in this book is a discussion of Camus’s comments on surrealism in his book The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt.
Like many works of abstract theory, this text requires the reader to do a lot of work. Moreover, the difficulty of some of these essays is increased not only by the unconventional subjects Bataille discusses (the unconscious, the irrational, the violent and the erotic, for instance) and the idiosyncratic view he takes with regard to them, but also by the paradoxes in his argument.
For example, the sacred for Bataille is “inexpressible”—yet he uses language to represent and discuss it. He argues for non-utilitarianism, which is activity liberated from ends based on desires or rationalization—but in making this argument, does he not transform non-utilitarianism itself into such an end? And how is non-utilitarianism reflected in the association of surrealism with the Communist Party, or with Andre Breton’s excommunication from the movement of those with whom he disagreed?
Paradoxical, too, is the language and structure of Bataille’s argument. The difficulties of Bataille’s writing style in particular can be read as reflecting the challenges associated with describing concepts like the sacred and the inexpressible which, as he points out, resist representation (in this Bataille is like the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, who was also associated with the surrealists and who also employed a convoluted writing style that reflected the paradoxicality of employing language to write psychoanalytically about language). Here, in many instances the reader uses rationality to work out Bataille’s meaning only to find that Bataille is contesting the method the reader is employing to work that meaning out. Thus, reading Bataille is a kind of self-cancelling process. As Ludwig Wittgenstein writes in the Tractatus Logico Philosophicus: “anyone who understands me eventually recognizes [the propositions:] as nonsensical, when he has used them—as steps—to climb beyond them. (He must, so to speak, throw away the ladder after he has climbed up it.)”
One thing that makes understanding Bataille’s argument a little easier is the fact that he returns to the same ideas in different essays. As well, readers familiar with his thought in later writings will see here the beginnings of some of the concepts for which he is best known. The last essay in the book, for instance, which is about eroticism, the language of mysticism and the Marquis de Sade, has particular resonance with ideas Bataille discusses in works like Literature and Evil, Erotism: Death and Sensuality, and Visions of Excess.
Acquired May 24, 2010
Powell's City of Books, Portland, OR
Bataille characterizes the modern human condition as a loss of the experience of the sacred, or an “absence of myth.” Nietzsche’s pronouncement in The Gay Science that “God is dead” is perhaps only the most explicit expression of this loss. It is this historical condition that makes possible the emergence of surrealism which, argues Bataille, can restore the connection to the sacred; in this respect, surrealism could be thought of as a modern religion.
For Bataille, both the sacred and the surreal are forms of the non-utilitarian. He employs the example of poetry to describe more fully the concept of the non-utilitarian; however, he adds that surrealism, insofar as it supplies experience of the sacred, is beyond poetry, and cannot be reduced to the merely literary. As a form of the non-utilitarian, surrealism can also be associated with freedom, and with revolt, which latter theme links his essays here with his later writings on taboo and the infringement of laws. In writing here of freedom, it is possible that Bataille wished to distinguish the non-utilitarian freedom of surrealism from the notion of freedom becoming popular with the emergence of the existentialist thought of writers like Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Albert Camus in the 1940s; one particularly good essay in this book is a discussion of Camus’s comments on surrealism in his book The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt.
Like many works of abstract theory, this text requires the reader to do a lot of work. Moreover, the difficulty of some of these essays is increased not only by the unconventional subjects Bataille discusses (the unconscious, the irrational, the violent and the erotic, for instance) and the idiosyncratic view he takes with regard to them, but also by the paradoxes in his argument.
For example, the sacred for Bataille is “inexpressible”—yet he uses language to represent and discuss it. He argues for non-utilitarianism, which is activity liberated from ends based on desires or rationalization—but in making this argument, does he not transform non-utilitarianism itself into such an end? And how is non-utilitarianism reflected in the association of surrealism with the Communist Party, or with Andre Breton’s excommunication from the movement of those with whom he disagreed?
Paradoxical, too, is the language and structure of Bataille’s argument. The difficulties of Bataille’s writing style in particular can be read as reflecting the challenges associated with describing concepts like the sacred and the inexpressible which, as he points out, resist representation (in this Bataille is like the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, who was also associated with the surrealists and who also employed a convoluted writing style that reflected the paradoxicality of employing language to write psychoanalytically about language). Here, in many instances the reader uses rationality to work out Bataille’s meaning only to find that Bataille is contesting the method the reader is employing to work that meaning out. Thus, reading Bataille is a kind of self-cancelling process. As Ludwig Wittgenstein writes in the Tractatus Logico Philosophicus: “anyone who understands me eventually recognizes [the propositions:] as nonsensical, when he has used them—as steps—to climb beyond them. (He must, so to speak, throw away the ladder after he has climbed up it.)”
One thing that makes understanding Bataille’s argument a little easier is the fact that he returns to the same ideas in different essays. As well, readers familiar with his thought in later writings will see here the beginnings of some of the concepts for which he is best known. The last essay in the book, for instance, which is about eroticism, the language of mysticism and the Marquis de Sade, has particular resonance with ideas Bataille discusses in works like Literature and Evil, Erotism: Death and Sensuality, and Visions of Excess.
Acquired May 24, 2010
Powell's City of Books, Portland, OR
July 1, 2020
One thing that put me off was the repetition/continuous references/explorations about 'the sacred' and tons of comparisons about religious matters (which I think/know is essential to this particular work of his yet I can't help but find it rather dull). Other than that, it's a pretty good collection of writings about Surrealism. I esp. love the fact that he did not glorify the so-called father of Surrealism, André Breton.
January 14, 2015
fine writing. often impenetrable like Breton or Foucault, but after reading a three page long paragraph... BAM! he'll make you amazed.
August 21, 2013
So far it's been an interesting read. A collection of letters & writing from Bataille, who, by all accounts was not the typical insider, in his views of surrealism. A sometimes foe of Breton, his views seem as much about causing drama as displaying a point of view.
He offers interesting contrasts to normal surrealists, though, and his main article of thought in this piece, dealing with what society will do to replace the binding common myth of God, once it's finally gone (as he speculated would eventually occur), is interesting to read about. I'm not a philosophy buff, so my knowledge in that arena is light. That said, it's a good read.
He offers interesting contrasts to normal surrealists, though, and his main article of thought in this piece, dealing with what society will do to replace the binding common myth of God, once it's finally gone (as he speculated would eventually occur), is interesting to read about. I'm not a philosophy buff, so my knowledge in that arena is light. That said, it's a good read.
June 24, 2025
"Losing the divine authority which gives meaning to our limits, man has tended no longer to recognise anything that could be rightly be opposed to his desire."
December 9, 2012
Though there are interesting fragments throughout on surrealism, myth, and consciousness, fragments is definitely the operative word. There doesn't feel like there's a cohesive framework behind these selections, and, truth be told, I feel I got more out of the introduction than I did out of the book itself. That said, it's been a useful addition to the research I've been doing for the book I'm working on, so I can't say it's useless. I wouldn't suggest it as an introduction to Bataille's thinking, however.
Read for the Immanence of Myth project - www.modernmythology.net
February 9, 2016
An interesting collection of essays and writings centered around surrealism and what surrealism meant for Bataille.
I found this volume particularly elucidating for my own thought, and how it relates to that of Bataille and of the surrealists.
Bataille is an important thinker, of that there is no dispute from me. I would not necessarily recommend this as an introduction to his writing and thought, however. It is more of a supplement. Take that statement for what you will. The same goes for the entirety of what has been written here.
I found this volume particularly elucidating for my own thought, and how it relates to that of Bataille and of the surrealists.
Bataille is an important thinker, of that there is no dispute from me. I would not necessarily recommend this as an introduction to his writing and thought, however. It is more of a supplement. Take that statement for what you will. The same goes for the entirety of what has been written here.
April 20, 2017
Georges Bataille, was an official member of the Surrealists if not mistaken, but had a (what a surprise) falling out with Andre Breton, the king (really) of that group. But that's personalites, I believe Bataille found Surrealism useful for his work - and this collection of essays on that subject is an important document of a time as well as its philosophy.
November 24, 2008
A slow reading of these essays and articles. The pieces on Rene Char, Prevert and Camus' The Rebel are worth careful and repeated reading.
Read
November 26, 2024È difficile dare un voto a un libro di questo genere.
Sto votando le scelte editoriali, la mia condivisione delle idee dello scrittore o il suo modo di presentarle?
Una raccolta di scritti di Bataille che racchiude le sue considerazioni sul surrealismo e altro.
È stato interessante avere il punto di vista di un insider e leggere del suo rapporto curioso con Breton.
Surr no mito (B w sacr e rit, ma ora senza sign).
Sto votando le scelte editoriali, la mia condivisione delle idee dello scrittore o il suo modo di presentarle?
Una raccolta di scritti di Bataille che racchiude le sue considerazioni sul surrealismo e altro.
È stato interessante avere il punto di vista di un insider e leggere del suo rapporto curioso con Breton.
Surr no mito (B w sacr e rit, ma ora senza sign).
September 14, 2023
it’s probably the funniest book abt surrealism yet but damn it’s booooorrriiinnggg. like sorry not sorry i know the point isn’t to entertain but like pls entertain me a little. the beginning is hilarious tho 10/10 thank you george that’s why i hold you to a higher standard it’s cause i know you have it in you. #rip you were a funny guy.
August 13, 2023
I actually only read selections, focused on “The Surrealist Religion.”
January 18, 2025
Banger reader.
December 19, 2009
The Absence of Myth: Writings on Surrealism by Georges Bataille (1994)
February 12, 2025
Not a necessary or essential collection, even for Bataille fans, but an illuminating study of surrealism by a contemporary, adherent and general enemy.
April 18, 2013
talked about here: http://www.5cense.com/13/dada_sushi.htm
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews