Georges Bataille, a brilliant French philosopher and writer, one of the leaders of the left-wing intellectuals of the XNUMXth century, argued that eroticism should not be confused with sexuality. It is eroticism, like the awareness of death, language and productive labor, that distinguishes us from animals.
Georges Bataille, a brilliant French philosopher and writer, one of the leaders of the left-wing intellectuals of the XNUMXth century, argued that eroticism should not be confused with sexuality. It is eroticism, as well as awareness of death, language and productive labor that distinguishes us from animals. Culturologist Oksana Timofeeva considers the original Bataev interpretation of the concept of «eroticism» and reflects on the so-called anthropological machine, a tool with which the bearer of a certain culture draws a boundary between animal and human qualities in himself, thereby distinguishing himself from nature. The philosophy of Bataille describes only one of the historical varieties of this mechanism — the denial in the European tradition of the first half of the XNUMXth century of the «animal» nature of human sexuality. But the approach proposed by Timofeeva can also be used in relation to other eras and cultures.
New Literary Review, 200 p.
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