Seattle Philosophy Club

Over 4 weeks we'll be exploring the encounter between Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze on the questions of pleasure, desire and the care of the self. We'll start with Foucault's late views on pleasure, resistance and identity with two interviews from 1982. Then we'll take up Deleuze's critique of pleasure and his emphasis on productive desire. The last topic will be Foucault's ethical views on the care of the self from 1984. This is a continuation of our detour from Bataille into Foucault's work on the history of sexuality.

Reading schedule
See the full weekly reading schedule at this link:
https://sites.google.com/view/existentialism-and-its-critics/

You can find all texts in the Google folder linked at the VERY BOTTOM of this description. The Google Meet link is also posted there.
👇 scroll all the way down for the links 👇

ABOUT THE BATAILLE GROUP
This is a comprehensive reading group focusing on the works of French writer Georges Bataille. We are reading key texts from Bataille himself, as well as tracing his relationship with other major thinkers such as Hegel, Nietzsche, André Breton/Surrealism, Blanchot, Lacan, Foucault, Deleuze, Derrida, etc.

Some familiarity with Bataille's mode and style of thought is helpful but not necessary. You're welcome to join the group in medias res at any time. See, however, the group rules below.

Please take the time to read and reflect on the reading prior to each meeting. Everyone is welcome to attend, but speaking priority will be given to people who have read the text.

Topics to be discussed in the future:

• Return to the 2nd part of Erotism
• Bataille's critique of Hegel: the negative and general economy
• Derrida's reading of Bataille in "From Restricted to General Economy"

Past topics included:

• Foucault on transgression and the history of sexuality
• Bataille's Erotism, Part 1 & the logic of transgression
• Bataillean transgression and Deleuzian line of flight: reading Fitzgerald's "The Crack-Up"
• Bataille's aesthetics: the rift with Surrealism
• Susan Sontag on avant-guarde literature
• Bataille's novel Blue of Noon
• Inner Experience and a-theological mysticism
• Bataille's reading of Nietzsche and critique of fascism

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MORE ABOUT BATAILLE
Georges Bataille stands out as an eclectic, fascinating and controversial figure in the world of French letters. A contemporary of Sartre and Lacan, he combined ideas from diverse disciplines to create a unique position that he called 'base materialism'. In the early 20s, Bataille abandoned Catholicism, embraced psychoanalysis and Marxism and initiated an unorthodox search for the sacred in late modernity. His obsessive pursuit of ecstatic liminal experiences took him across the boundaries of philosophy, sociology, political economy, mythology, poetry, literature and mystical theology. His works develop a libidinal economy of unconditioned expenditure, offer a critique of fascism and embrace marginal experiences in the style of the French poets. Though he remained largely outside the academic mainstream and worked as a librarian, Bataille is a formative precursor to the post-structuralist philosophers of the '60s -- and may well be more relevant to our time than ever.

In this group we look at a significant cross-section of Bataille's texts. Our aim is to understand his thought on its own terms as well as place him in the context of his predecessors and the French thinkers who followed his lead. In view of Bataille's early relationship with Surrealism, the referenced artworks will spotlight this movement.

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GROUP RULES

• Please spend 1-2 hours per week reading and preparing for the discussion.
• Keep your comments concise and relevant to the text.
• Please limit each comment to a maximum of 2-3 minutes. You're welcome to speak as many times as you wish.
• Virtual meeting courtesy: let's not interrupt each other and keep mics muted when not speaking.
• We'll focus the discussion with key passages and discussion questions. Be sure to bring your favorite passages, questions, comments, criticisms, etc.

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