Encyclopaedia Acephalica: Comprising the Critical Dictionary & Related Texts

Atlas Arkhive #3

by Georges Bataille, Iain White, Isabelle Waldberg (Editor)

The ideas of Georges Bataille (1897-1962) are being increasingly recognised as offering vital insights into the whole areas of human existence, and over the last few years most of his important theoretical and fictional texts have appeared in English. Yet Bataille’s thought is complex, and his books make few concessions to the reader. The first series of texts here, however, were written for a wider audience by Bataille and his friends, in the form of a dictionary, and they provide a witty, poetic and concise introduction to his ideas. The Critical Dictionary appeared in the magazine edited by Bataille, Documents, the second series of texts, the Da Costa Encyclopédique was published anonymously after the liberation of Paris in 1947 by members of the Acéphale group and writers associated with Surrealists. Both cover the essential concepts of Bataille and his sacred sociology; scatology, death and the erotic; base materialism; the aesthetics of the formless; sacrifice, festival and the politics of the tumult a new description of the limits of being human. Humour, albeit, sardonic, is not absent from these remarkable redefinitions of the most heterogeneous objects or Camel, Church, Dust, Museum, Spittle, Skyscraper, Threshold, Work — to name but a few. The Documents group was celebrated for joining together artists, authors, sociologists and ethnologists (among the most important of their time) in a literary and philosophical project. The Acéphale group was more mysterious, even its membership is only vaguely known, and its activities remain secret. The origins of the Da Costa only became known in 1993, the present volume reveals for the first time its principal Robert Lebel, Isabelle Waldberg and Marcel Duchamp, even so, the identity of the authors of a large part of it remain unknown.

Genres: Philosophy, Poetry, Art, Anthropology, Nonfiction, Reference

173 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1995

About the author

French 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.

Reviews

[S̶e̶a̶n̶ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Atlas Arkhive includes various examples of the reference work as a subversive document, with Georges Bataille having his hand in all of them to a greater or lesser degree. Documents was a sort of faux academic magazine peppered with shocking and irreverent elements that Bataille founded with his colleague at the Bibliothèque Nationale, Pierre d'Espezel; the Critical Dictionary, originally published as part of Documents, functions as a critique of the dictionary; and the Encylopaedia Da Costa was a darkly humorous project collaborated on by factions of the Surrealists and Bataille's secret society Acéphale that, while published anonymously, includes contributions likely to be from Bataille, Alfred Jarry, André Breton, and Marcel Duchamp, among others. One of the funniest entries in the Da Costa is the one for Con-Men, which takes Max Brod to task for his handling of Kafka's literary estate and skewers both Brod and various other commentators for their interpretations of Kafka's work. Some of my favorite entries in the Critical Dictionary were written by Michel Leiris, reminding me once again that I need to read more of his work. And of course the entire work is invaluable for the insight it provides into Bataille's background and the foundations and distillations of his concerns, both in his own words and in Alastair Brotchie's introduction and notes. I wish I could take more time with this book for it demands to be dipped into rather than read straight through, but alas it must return to the library.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

The violent and lethal “Encyclopaedia Acephalica” aims to slaughter all forms of social authority. A panoply of subversive theoretical and poetic texts, the two sections (Critical Dictionary/ Related Texts and the mysterious Encyclopaedia Da Costa) expose human existence as an atrophying body, wasting away from a lack of sovereignty and a fear, through cultural reproduction, of the excreta of society. The group of writers associated with the ex-Surrealists and “Documents,” brought together a diverse group of intellectuals from sociologists to artists, each providing an insightful outlook into cultural practices and their relation to the individual. The one voice that is prominent throughout the entire text is Georges Bataille and his conception of base materialism, represented by the Acephalic man, forces one to recognize heterogeneous elements: scatology, eroticism, and the sacred. To get a sense of Bataille and his associates’ contempt for Idealism (Surrealism, ideology), the Acephalic man or in other words, the headless man is, paradoxically, ideal in representing the essence of Bataille’s thought. Just as the Universal Man represents hierarchy and Idealism, the acephalic is its antithesis, the anti-hierarchical. Years before post-Modernism, this acephalic model, apropos in demonstrating a system that anarchically overthrows the entire social system from ideology to language, dialectically brings man back to community. Undoubtedly, this is a juggernaut of dissent, tearing down the social constructs in order to get a better understanding of human existence without other people paving the way for you; take the time to read this playfully sardonic and academic dictionary.

[Stacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

hard to get even after 10 re-reads. So I read it again.

[Eireann · Rating 3 out of 5]

The good entries are quite good but there are plenty of less interesting sections which delayed my progress through it for quite some time. Good to read alongside something else, as an encyclopedia, even a surrealist one, becomes a tiresome format.

[Laura]

georges bataille and crew compose a prose poetry hybrid undefinable collection of commentary on their world. also see the contemporary Encyclopedia project... that's also on my shelf.

[Bil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspire and devolve all other unlearning.

[Eric Phetteplace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting format, a sort of surrealist dictionary. The articles alternate between theory, stories, and strange prose. Worth reading not only for the innovation but also Bataille's unique philosophy.