ABSTRACT
French writer and critic Georges Bataille (1897-1962) remains a controversial figure within French intellectual life. While he exerted an undoubted influence on many later thinkers, such as Jean Baudrillard, his often disturbing prose has led many to question his sanity. Yet the images of horror and obscenity in Bataille’s writing play a crucial role as strategies of transgression within a world dominated by social norms and established hierarchies. Bataille seeks to untie such hierarchies and to expose them as fictions. He indulges in a form of counter-intuitive writing, which attempts to move beyond our inherited understanding of the world. Thus in his famous example of the ‘solar-anus’, Bataille presents an image of the sun excreting light. The sun and excrement both stand for creation and creativity. Too much sun only blinds the viewer.
