The Accursed Share by Georges Bataille
An Essay on General Economy
An ambitious, provocative inquiry into what happens to societies' unavoidable surplus, arguing that economies must be understood as general systems in which production creates excess energy or wealth that cannot be fully reintegrated through productive use and therefore must be expended; such expenditure appears as luxury, ceremonial exchange (potlatch), sacrifice, sacred waste, or war, and these unproductive outflows shape sovereignty, social bonds, eroticism, and religious forms. Contrasting restricted household economies of utility and accumulation with a broader logic of obligatory waste, the work claims this surplus-driven expenditure explains cycles of magnificence and destruction and underlies political power and cultural continuity.
- Published
- 1949
- Nationality
- French
- Length
- Unknown
- Pages
- Unknown
- Original Language
- French
- Avg User Rating
-
(3.0)
- Alternate Titles
- - La part maudite
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