Experiences of the Self between Limit, Transgression, and the Explosion of the Dialectical System: Foucault as reader of Bataille and Blanchot

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesTransferpeer-review

Standard

Experiences of the Self between Limit, Transgression, and the Explosion of the Dialectical System: Foucault as reader of Bataille and Blanchot. / Nigro, Roberto.
In: Philosophy & Social Criticism, Vol. 31, No. 5-6, 01.09.2005, p. 649-664.

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesTransferpeer-review

Harvard

APA

Vancouver

Bibtex

@article{875b5ae29ef949038bccf6cc33db2183,
title = "Experiences of the Self between Limit, Transgression, and the Explosion of the Dialectical System: Foucault as reader of Bataille and Blanchot",
abstract = "Bataille and Blanchot figure among the authors who influenced Foucault the most. In this article we show how close Foucault was to these authors and to what extent his proximity to them permitted him to deviate from the prevailing university culture, i.e from those great philosophical machines called Hegelianism and phenomenology. The questions we pose are the following: How important were these experiences for Foucault? How did he receive them? How did he transform their theoretical stakes? In the first part of this article we argue that the encounter with Bataille's work and Blanchot's was for Foucault a kind of experience of the self. In Bataille and Blanchot, experience has the function of wrenching the subject from itself: it is a project of desubjectivation and of destruction of the notion of the foundational subject and system in philosophy. The second part focuses on the contemporary experience of the death of God. According to Foucault, such an experience discloses the limitless reign of the Limit. We show how the work of Bataille, his discovery of the categories of irreversible expenditure, death, sacrifice, excess, limit, negativity pushes the (Hegelian) system beyond its limit. In the third part we take into account the literary experience of Blanchot. According to Foucault, Blanchot's work focuses on the disappearance of the subject: the being of language emerges in the exclusion of the subject. How is it possible to have a language stripped of dialectics?.",
keywords = "Philosophy, Bataille, Blanchot, conversion, death of God, dialectics, experience of the self, finitude, Foucault, Hegelianism, impossible, inner experience, Klossowski, language, limit, limit-experience, negativity, Nietzsche, phenomenology, sexuality, sovereignty, subject, subjectivation/desubjectivation, thought of outside, transgression",
author = "Roberto Nigro",
note = "Special issue commemorating the 20th anniversary of Foucault's death",
year = "2005",
month = sep,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1177/0191453705055493",
language = "English",
volume = "31",
pages = "649--664",
journal = "Philosophy & Social Criticism",
issn = "0191-4537",
publisher = "SAGE Publications Inc.",
number = "5-6",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Experiences of the Self between Limit, Transgression, and the Explosion of the Dialectical System

T2 - Foucault as reader of Bataille and Blanchot

AU - Nigro, Roberto

N1 - Special issue commemorating the 20th anniversary of Foucault's death

PY - 2005/9/1

Y1 - 2005/9/1

N2 - Bataille and Blanchot figure among the authors who influenced Foucault the most. In this article we show how close Foucault was to these authors and to what extent his proximity to them permitted him to deviate from the prevailing university culture, i.e from those great philosophical machines called Hegelianism and phenomenology. The questions we pose are the following: How important were these experiences for Foucault? How did he receive them? How did he transform their theoretical stakes? In the first part of this article we argue that the encounter with Bataille's work and Blanchot's was for Foucault a kind of experience of the self. In Bataille and Blanchot, experience has the function of wrenching the subject from itself: it is a project of desubjectivation and of destruction of the notion of the foundational subject and system in philosophy. The second part focuses on the contemporary experience of the death of God. According to Foucault, such an experience discloses the limitless reign of the Limit. We show how the work of Bataille, his discovery of the categories of irreversible expenditure, death, sacrifice, excess, limit, negativity pushes the (Hegelian) system beyond its limit. In the third part we take into account the literary experience of Blanchot. According to Foucault, Blanchot's work focuses on the disappearance of the subject: the being of language emerges in the exclusion of the subject. How is it possible to have a language stripped of dialectics?.

AB - Bataille and Blanchot figure among the authors who influenced Foucault the most. In this article we show how close Foucault was to these authors and to what extent his proximity to them permitted him to deviate from the prevailing university culture, i.e from those great philosophical machines called Hegelianism and phenomenology. The questions we pose are the following: How important were these experiences for Foucault? How did he receive them? How did he transform their theoretical stakes? In the first part of this article we argue that the encounter with Bataille's work and Blanchot's was for Foucault a kind of experience of the self. In Bataille and Blanchot, experience has the function of wrenching the subject from itself: it is a project of desubjectivation and of destruction of the notion of the foundational subject and system in philosophy. The second part focuses on the contemporary experience of the death of God. According to Foucault, such an experience discloses the limitless reign of the Limit. We show how the work of Bataille, his discovery of the categories of irreversible expenditure, death, sacrifice, excess, limit, negativity pushes the (Hegelian) system beyond its limit. In the third part we take into account the literary experience of Blanchot. According to Foucault, Blanchot's work focuses on the disappearance of the subject: the being of language emerges in the exclusion of the subject. How is it possible to have a language stripped of dialectics?.

KW - Philosophy

KW - Bataille

KW - Blanchot

KW - conversion

KW - death of God

KW - dialectics

KW - experience of the self

KW - finitude

KW - Foucault

KW - Hegelianism

KW - impossible

KW - inner experience

KW - Klossowski

KW - language

KW - limit

KW - limit-experience

KW - negativity

KW - Nietzsche

KW - phenomenology

KW - sexuality

KW - sovereignty

KW - subject

KW - subjectivation/desubjectivation

KW - thought of outside

KW - transgression

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84996249603&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/06ec1f68-8d65-3c92-9ddf-9c3f10435e52/

U2 - 10.1177/0191453705055493

DO - 10.1177/0191453705055493

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 31

SP - 649

EP - 664

JO - Philosophy & Social Criticism

JF - Philosophy & Social Criticism

SN - 0191-4537

IS - 5-6

ER -

DOI

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. ENVISIONING PROTECTED AREAS THROUGH PARTICIPATORY SCENARIO PLANNING: NAVIGATING COVERAGE AND EFFECTIVENESS CHALLENGES AHEAD
  2. Developing a Process for the Analysis of User Journeys and the Prediction of Dropout in Digital Health Interventions:
  3. Photodegradation of micropollutants using V-UV/UV-C processes
  4. Integrating methods for ecosystem service assessment
  5. Do consumers prefer pasture-raised dual-purpose cattle when considering meat products? A hypothetical discrete choice experiment for the case of minced beef
  6. Contrasting patterns of intraspecific trait variability in native and non-native plant species along an elevational gradient on Tenerife, Canary Islands
  7. Impact factors and regulatory mechanisms for material flow management
  8. Towards a Comprehensive Framework for Environmental Management Accounting
  9. Governmental activity, integration, and agglomeration
  10. Challenges in political interviews
  11. A switching model predictive control for overcoming a hysteresis effect in a hybrid actuator for camless internal combustion engines
  12. Towards a Comprehensive Framework for Environmental Management Accounting
  13. Actuator- and/or sensor element for sleeve in medical field e.g. limb or joint fracture treatment, has nano-wires comprising nano-fibers, where element deforms and acquires dimensional change of nano-fibers via electrical signal
  14. Article 32 Date of Application
  15. Collaborative modelling for active involvement of stakeholders in urban flood risk management
  16. Glitch(ing)! A refusal and gateway to more caring techno-urban worlds?
  17. Probing turbulent superstructures in Rayleigh-Bénard convection by Lagrangian trajectory clusters
  18. Assessing tree dendrometrics in young regenerating plantations using terrestrial laser scanning
  19. Toxicity testing with luminescent bacteria - Characterization of an automated method for the combined assessment of acute and chronic effects
  20. RelHunter
  21. Swarm Robotics, or: The Smartness of 'a bunch of cheap dumb things'
  22. Perceptions of Organizational Downsizing
  23. Policy implementation through multi-level governance
  24. Pre-service mathematics teachers' modelling processes within model eliciting activity through digital technologies
  25. Advantages and difficulties of conducting thinking-aloud protocols in the school setting