Correspondence : Georges Bataille and Michel Leiris

by Georges Bataille and Michel Leiris; Translated by Liz Heron

• ISBN13: 9781905422678
• ISBN10: 1905422679
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2008-08-05
• Publisher: Seagull Books

Summary

Translated by Liz HeronIn the autumn of 1924, two young men met in Paris for the first time. Georges Bataille was just 27 and had recently started working at the Bibliothèque nationale. Michel Leiris, 23, was beginning his studies in ethnology.They discussed the idea of founding a movement which would displace Dada and of launching a magazine based in a brothel. Instead, within a few months, they both became members of the surrealist group. But their adherence to surrealism would not last long. In 1930 they were signatories to the infamous tract against Breton, the 'Machiavelli of Montmartre', as Leiris put it. But their own friendship would endure for more than thirty years and their correspondence, assembled here for the first time, would continue until the death of Bataille in 1962.As these letters show, their intellectual affinities were extensive and although they followed different trajectories - Leiris spending more and more time in Africa as an ethnologist, whilst Bataille remained in Paris developing the ideas on the sacred, sacrifice and eroticism for which he is best known - they continued to have a profound influence on each other. Including a number of short essays by each of them on aspects of the other's work, and excerpts on Bataille from Leiris's diaries, this collection of their correspondence throws new light on two of surrealism's most radical dissidents.

Author Biography

Georges Bataille (1897-1962) was an 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. His most famous works include The Story of the Eye (1928), Blue of Noon (1945), and The Abbot C. (1950).

Michel Leiris (1901-90) was a writer and anthropologist, born in Paris, France.  Hi works include Simulacra (1925), Extreme Evil (1943), and Aurora (1946).

Table of Contents

Michel Leiris
On Georges Bataille	p. 1
Georges Bataille as Don Giovanni	p. 3
From Bataille the Impossible to the Impossible Documents	p. 6
From the Time of Lord Auch	p. 22
Georges Bataille
On Michel Leiris	p. 39
Surrealism from Day to Day	p. 41
The Publication of 'A Corpse'	p. 63
Racism	p. 70
Georges Bataille and Michel Leiris
Correspondence 1924-61	p. 77
Michel Leiris
Georges Bataille, As Time Goes By	p. 225
Robert Desnos, Georges Bataille and Marcel Griaule
Eye	p. 243
Bernard Noel
Afterword: A Way of Looking that is Understood	p. 253
A Bio-Bibliographic Chronology	p. 261
Periodicals to which Bataille and Leins both contributed (1925-62)	p. 285
Bibliography	p. 289
Index	p. 293
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.