1
of
1
The Accursed Share
Volume 1: Consumption
Series: Zone Books
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still
learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Summary
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
TEMPORARILY OUT OF STOCK
Please add to wishlist to be notified when back in stock
Sorry, we're currently out of stock of The Accursed Share. Please add to your Wishlist and we'll send you an email as soon as it's back in stock.
Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
This challenging and intellectually stimulating work is ideal for readers interested in philosophy, political economy, cultural theory, and those seeking an unconventional perspective on civilisation and economics.
Latest News
Movie Review on One Night Only
I didnโt watch the trailer. I sat down expecting just another brain-dead, conveyor-belt romantic comedy...
New Hero Alert! Meet Theresa โ our new Warehouse Sidekick
Weโre thrilled to welcome Theresa to the Book Hero team! Whenever we bring a new...
Our Rolife Range Is Getting Even Bigger!
Our Rolife range is getting even bigger! Weโve got a huge new shipment on the...
How to Make 1000 Piece Puzzles Easier
1000 piece puzzles can seem a little intimidating, but a few simple tricks can make...
Pick up a Microhistory (and become a very niche expert)
If you've seen people talking about a book about Salt and wondered what was happening...
See moreThe Accursed Share provides an excellent introduction to Bataille the philosopher.
"A serious book of political economy that also claims 'the sexual act is in time what the tiger is in space.'... The Accursed Share is a brilliant product of [Bataille's] loony-tunes coupling of critical genres: pseudo/antisurrealist manifestos, leftist political treatises, erotics, Hegel 'n' Nietzsche studies, mysticism, anthropology, and sun worship. " Erik Davis , The Voice Literary Supplement
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
still learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Description
Most Anglo-American readers know Bataille as a novelist. The Accursed Share provides an excellent introduction to Bataille the philosopher. Here he uses his unique economic theory as the basis for an incisive inquiry into the very nature of civilization.
Unlike conventional economic models based on notions of scarcity, Bataille's theory develops the concept of excess: a civilization, he argues, reveals its order most clearly in the treatment of its surplus energy. The result is a brilliant blend of ethics, aesthetics, and cultural anthropology that challenges both mainstream economics and ethnology.
Series: Zone Books
View all-
Objectivity
The emergence of objectivity in the mid-nineteenth-century sciences is revealed through images in scientific atlasesโa story of how lofty epistemic ideals fuse with workaday practices. Objectivity has a history, and it is full of surprises. In Objectivity, Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison chart the emergence of objectivity in the mid-nineteenth-century sciences and show how the concept differs from its alternatives:...Paperback$9499Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Myth and Thought among the Greeks
A classic work that rereads questions of muthos and logos in multifaceted contexts. When Jean-Pierre Vernant first published Myth and Thought among the Greeks in 1965, it transformed the field of ancient Greek scholarship, calling forth a new way to think about Greek myth and thought. In eighteen essaysโthree of which, along with a new preface, are translated into English...Paperback$8499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
Myth and Tragedy in Ancient Greece
Myth and Tragedy in Ancient Greece by Jean-Pierre Vernant and Pierre Vidal-Naquet offers a compelling reinterpretation of Greek thought and literature. These scholars are at the forefront of contemporary French classical studies, renowned for their innovative approaches. In this work, presented as a single volume, the authors deliver a provocative and unconventional reading of Greek tragedy. They highlight its stark...Paperback$8999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
Masochism
In his stunning essay, Coldness and Cruelty, Gilles Deleuze provides a rigorous and informed philosophical examination of the work of the late 19th-century German novelist Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. Deleuze's essay, certainly the most profound study yet produced on the relations between sadism and masochism, seeks to develop and explain Masoch's "peculiar way of 'desexualizing' love while at the same time...Paperback$6999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
The Masters of Truth in Archaic Greece
The acclaimed French classicist Marcel Detienne's first book traces the odyssey of truth, aletheia, from mytho-religious concept to philosophical thought in archaic Greece. Detienne begins by examining how truth in Greek literature first emerges as an enigma. He then looks at the movement from a religious to a secular thinking about truth in the speech of the sophists and orators....Paperback$6100Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
The Culture of the Copy
A novel attempt to make sense of our preoccupation with copies of all kindsโfrom counterfeits to instant replay, from parrots to photocopies. The Culture of the Copy is a novel attempt to make sense of the Western fascination with replicas, duplicates, and twins. In a work that is breathtaking in its synthetic and critical achievements, Hillel Schwartz charts the repercussions...Paperback$8999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
Wonders and the Order of Nature, 1150โ1750
This text explores ways in which European naturalists from the High Middle Ages through to the Enlightenment used wonder and wonders, the passion and its objects, to envision themselves and the natural world. Monsters, gems that shone in the dark, and celestial apparitions adorned romances and puzzled philosophers. Drawing on the histories of art, science, philosophy, and literature, this book...Paperback$10500Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
A Million Years of Music
A new narrative for the emergence of human music, drawing from archaeology, cognitive science, linguistics, and evolutionary theory. What is the origin of music? In the last few decades, this centuries-old puzzle has been reinvigorated by new archaeological evidence and developments in the fields of cognitive science, linguistics, and evolutionary theory. In this path-breaking book, renowned musicologist Gary Tomlinson draws...Paperback$7499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
Christian Materiality
Late Medieval Christianity's encounter with miraculous materials is viewed in the context of changing conceptions of matter itself. In the period between 1150 and 1550, an increasing number of Christians in western Europe made pilgrimage to places where material objectsโamong them paintings, statues, relics, pieces of wood, earth, stones, and Eucharistic wafersโallegedly erupted into life through such activities as bleeding,...Paperback$8499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
The Propensity of Things
In this book, his first to appear in English, French sinologist Franรงois Jullien uses the Chinese concept of shiโmeaning disposition or circumstance, power or potentialโas a touchstone to explore Chinese culture and to uncover the intricate structure underlying Chinese modes of thinking. In this strikingly original contribution to our understanding of Chinese philosophy, Franรงois Jullien uses the Chinese concept of...Paperback$7499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
Forensic Architecture
A new form of investigative practice uses architecture as an optical device to investigate armed conflicts and environmental destruction. In recent years, the group Forensic Architecture has begun using novel research methods to undertake a series of investigations into human rights abuses. Today, the group provides crucial evidence for international courts and works with a wide range of activist groups,...Paperback$10500Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
Publics and Counterpublics
An investigation of how the idea of a public as a central fiction of modern life informs our literature, politics, and culture. Most of the people around us belong to our world not directly, as kin or comrades, but as strangers. How do we recognize them as members of our world? We are related to them as transient participants in...Paperback$7499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Erik Davis of The Voice Literary Supplement describes the book as "a serious book of political economy" rich with eclectic influences such as mysticism, anthropology, and philosophy. He praises Bataille's unique fusion of genres, highlighting its provocative and multifaceted nature.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780942299113
Publisher: Zone Books
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 15 May 1991
Country: United States
Imprint: Zone Books
Contributors:
- Translated by Robert Hurley
Audience: Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 13.0mm
Width: 152.0mm
Height: 229.0mm
Weight: 363g
Pages: 200
About the Author
Georges Bataille (18971962), founder of the French review Critique, wrote fiction and essays on a wide range of topics. His books in English translation include Story of the Eye, Blue of Noon, Literature and Evil, Manet, Theory of Religion, and Eroticism.
Also by Georges Bataille
View all-
Eroticism
An influential exploration of sex and its surrounding taboos. A philosopher, essayist, novelist, pornographer, and fervent Catholic who came to regard the brothels of Paris as his true 'churches', Georges Bataille ranks among the boldest and most disturbing of twentieth-century thinkers. In this influential study, he links the underlying sexual basis of religion to death, offering a dazzling array of...Paperback$2700Elsewhere:$3000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Literature and Evil
An extraordinary collection of essays arguing for literature's complicity with evil, new to Penguin Modern Classics. Literature is not innocent, stated Georges Bataille in this extraordinary 1957 collection of essays, arguing that only by acknowledging its complicity with the knowledge of evil can literature communicate fully and intensely. These literary profiles of eight authors and their work, including Emily Brontรซ's...Paperback$2400Elsewhere:$2600Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
My Mother, Madame Edwarda, The Dead Man
Three works of erotic prose fusing sex and spirituality, new to Penguin Modern Classics. In these three works of erotic prose, Georges Bataille fuses sex and spirituality in a highly personal and philosophical vision of the self. My Mother is a frank and intense depiction of a young man's sexual initiation and corruption by his mother, where the profane becomes...Paperback$2700Elsewhere:$3000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Story of the Eye
In 1928, Georges Bataille published this first novel under a pseudonym, a legendary shocker that uncovers the dark side of the erotic by means of forbidden obsessive fantasies of excess and sexual extremes. A classic of pornographic literature, Story of the Eye finds the parallels in Sade and Nietzsche and in the investigations of contemporary psychology; it also forecasts Bataille's...Paperback$3500Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
Critical Essays
An introduction for English-language readers to Georges Bataille's postwar philosophical and critical writings. In the aftermath of World War II, French thinker and writer Georges Bataille forged a singular path through the moral and political impasses of his age. In 1946, animated by "a need to live events in an increasingly conscious way," and to reject any compartmentalization of intellectual...Hardback$5499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
The Accursed Share
The three volumes of The Accursed Share address what Georges Bataille sees as the paradox of utility: namely, if being useful means serving a further end, then the ultimate end of utility can only be uselessness. The first volume, the only one published before Bataille's death, treated this paradox in economic terms, showing that "it is not necessity but its...Paperback$8500Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
Correspondence โ Georges Bataille and Michel Leiris
Including a number of short essays by Bataille and Leiris on aspects of the other's work as well as excerpts on Bataille from Leiris' diaries, this collection of correspondence throws new light on two of Surrealism's most radical dissidents. In the autumn of 1924, just before Andrรฉ Breton published the Manifeste du surrรฉalisme, two young men met in Paris for...Paperback$4699Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Critical Essays โ Volume 1, 1944โ1948
This first book in a three-volume collection of Georges Batailleโs essays introduces English readers to his philosophical and critical writings. In the aftermath of the Second World War, French thinker and writer Georges Bataille forged a singular path through the moral and political impasses of his age. In 1946, animated by "a need to live events in an increasingly conscious...Hardback$5699Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Theory of Religion
Theory of Religion brings to philosophy what Bataille's earlier book, The Accursed Share, brought to anthropology and history; namely, an analysis based on notions of excess and expenditure. Bataille brilliantly defines religion as so many different attempts to respond to the universe's relentless generosity. Framed within his original theory of generalized economics and based on his masterly reading of archaic...Paperback$7499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
The Cradle of Humanity
A radically interdisciplinary inquiry into the origins of human consciousness, community, and potential. The Cradle of Humanity: Prehistoric Art and Culture collects essays and lectures by Georges Bataille spanning 30 years of research in anthropology, comparative religion, aesthetics, and philosophy. These were neither idle nor idyllic years; the discovery of Lascaux in 1940 coincides with the bloodiest war in historyโwith...PaperbackSold Out -
Visions of Excess
Since the publication of Visions of Excess in 1985, there has been an explosion of interest in the work of Georges Bataille. The French surrealist continues to be important for his groundbreaking focus on the visceral, the erotic, and the relation of society to the primeval. This collection of prewar writings remains the volume in which Bataille's positions are most...PaperbackSold Out -
Unfinished System of Nonknowledge
This volume collects the most intimate writings of one of the foremost French thinkers of the twentieth century on the central topic of his oeuvre. These essays, aphorisms, notes, and lectures on nonknowledge, sovereignty, and sacrifice clarify and extend Bataille's radical theology, his philosophy of history, and his ecstatic method of meditation. The "system" that emerges from his body of...PaperbackSold Out
More from Education & Reference
View all-
The Body Keeps the Score
The Body Keeps the Score by Dr Bessel van der Kolk is a compelling and compassionate exploration of the deep-seated impact of trauma on the human body and mind. This groundbreaking work delves into the complex causes of trauma and paints a vivid picture of the revolutionary treatments that are enabling countless individuals to reclaim their lives filled with purpose...Paperback$2400Elsewhere:$3000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Age Code
What if the food you eat could rewind your biological clock? 'Clear and compelling' โ Chris van Tulleken 'Really interesting and insightful' โ Joe Wicks 'Fascinating' โ Tim Spector From the rising incidence of cancer in the under-50s to increased infertility rates, there are signs everywhere that growing numbers of us are ageing too quickly. Why? Many believe thereโs one...Paperback$2999Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Maori Made Easy Workbook 1/Kete 1
Maori Made Easy Workbook 1/Kete 1 by Scotty Morrison is the ultimate companion for anyone eager to learn the beautiful and complex Maori language. Whether you're starting from scratch or looking to brush up on your skills, this workbook offers a structured and engaging way to immerse yourself in te reo Maori. Designed to be accessible regardless of your starting...Paperback$2000Elsewhere:$2500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseSuicidal Empathy
The bestselling author of The Parasitic Mind shows why empathy in politics leads to civilizational collapse. What happens when a society elevates victimhood to a virtue and decides that punishment is cruel? You get the disease Dr. Gad Saad calls suicidal empathy. And the West may be terminally infected. In his new book, Suicidal Empathy, Saad unleashes a blistering critique...Paperback$3099Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
2027 Witch's Diary - Southern Hemisphere
From the bestselling authors of Spellcasting, which has now sold over 250,000 copies worldwide, comes the essential witchy journal to plan your days, harness magick, and connect with higher powers. Features include: 8" x 6" (8" x 12" open) Beautiful glossy gold gatefold cover Compact size, perfect to carry in your bag and keep on you throughout the day 12-month...Paperback$1999Elsewhere:$2299Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Maori Made Easy Workbook 2/Kete 2
Immerse yourself in the richness of the Mฤori language with Maori Made Easy Workbook 2/Kete 2 by renowned TV personality and passionate te reo Mฤori advocate, Scotty Morrison. This comprehensive workbook is designed to cater to learners of all levels, making the beautiful language of the Mฤori people accessible and enjoyable for everyone. Building on the successful approach of the...Paperback$2000Elsewhere:$2500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseThe Farm
The Farm is a lyrical and entertaining journey to the heart of rural life in New Zealand from one of our greatest living writers. When Bruce Ansley visited a friend on a sheep farm on Banks Peninsula, they pointed out a property for sale, down by the water. Down a drive curving through sycamores, oaks, and rhododendrons, there was a...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Roadmap to Property Success
Ready to ditch the 9-to-5 and build lasting wealth through property? In Roadmap to Property Success, seasoned investor and coach Steve Goodey shares the exact strategies that helped him โ and thousands of Kiwis โ build sustainable property portfolios from scratch. With real-life lessons, hard-won wisdom, and zero sugar-coating, this is your no-BS guide to property investing in New Zealand....Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Signed CopyNew Release
Go Hard or Go Home
From the front bench to rock bottom:ย Go Hard or Go Homeย is Kiri Allan's fearless memoir of ambition, disruption and survival in NZ politics and beyond. Kiri Allan's six-year political career spanned some of the most challenging times in recent history. Events a government might encounter once in a generation stacked up: a terrorist attack, a volcanic eruption, destructive and deadly...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseRegime Change
From the two reporters who have covered him more closely than perhaps anyone else over the past decade comes this definitive portrait of Donald Trump in the White House and the first year of his second presidency. Based on hundreds of interviews and unprecedented reporting from deep within the administrationโs most closely guarded rooms, Regime Change takes the reader into...Paperback$3299Elsewhere:$4299Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
I Eat the Stars
Fromย New York Timesย bestselling author and journalist Sarah Wilson comes a deeply moving, wise guide to finding joy and meaning in a world that seems to be falling apart. Itโs hard to escape the feeling that something is deeplyย wrongย . . . that life has become precariously off-balance. We are hit hourly with headlines about catastrophic wildfires, unprecedented flooding, record heat waves,...Hardback$3199Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Pre-orderNew ReleaseMinecraft Annual 2027
The official Minecraft Annual 2027, full of updates, builds, activities, and more! Discover all there is to know about the past year of Minecraft in this exciting annual. Stuffed to the brim with updates, activities, step-by-step builds, and tips and tricks for the game, this book is a must-have for any minecrafter. This yearโs annual includes: Mob guides on happy...Hardback$1999Elsewhere:$2499Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today
Why buy from us?
Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!
Service & Delivery
Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.
Auckland Bookstore
We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.
Our Gifting Service
Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.
