Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille (; French: [ʒɔʁʒ batɑj]; 10 September 1897 – 9 July 1962) was a French writer, essayist, librarian and theorist whose work crossed the boundaries of literature, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, political economy, religious studies and art history. His writings include novels, erotic fiction, poetry, philosophical essays, art criticism, lectures, diaries and fragmentary meditations. Although frequently described as a philosopher, Bataille resisted treating his work as a conventional philosophical system. He conceived writing as an exploration of the limits of human experience in which theoretical reflection, literary form and personal exposure could not be cleanly separated.
Bataille's recurring subjects included sacrifice, eroticism, death, laughter, mystical experience, expenditure, sovereignty, community and the sacred. Among the concepts associated with his work are base materialism, heterology, the informe, nonknowledge, general economy and the "accursed share".
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