The Work of Alterity: Bataille and Lacan

Author(s): Jean Dragon

Source: Diacritics, Vol. 26, No. 2, Georges Bataille: An Occasion for Misunderstanding
(Summer, 1996), pp. 31-48
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
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OF
ALTERITY
WORK
BATAILLEAND LACAN
THE

JEANDRAGON
The topic of alteritymay appearat first to be beyond the scope of Bataille's work, but it
is from such questioningthathis practiceof writingtakes its full contoursand questions
the renewal of literarytextuality.
Strangely,Bataille fights againstwriting, an attitudethat shows a will to disappear
in orderto reachsovereignty.Writing,in such a context,supportsnot only certainuseful
figures for his particularlyheterogeneous works but also the presence of alterity.
Feminineimagos, set as the literaryequivalentof the eradicationof meaningand words,
act as levers from which a characterproducesitself or ratherdisarticulatesand vanishes.
Bataille's fight againstwritingshows strongsimilaritiesto some Lacaniannotions:
the subject,pleasure("jouissance"),and,of course,woman.Before tryingto mapout this
perilouscomparison-there is no possible perfecttransitionbetween the two-we must
first extractthe significantelementsthatmake it possible. To this end, we proposesome
reflectionson Bataille's concepts of Oedipusand castration.In so doing, we will be in a
bettersituationto link LacanandBataille's worksbutalso to understandwhereLacanhas
been inspiredby Batailleandhow Lacandistinguisheshimself in his interpretationof the
imaginary,the symbolic, the Law, and feminine imagos---especiallyin the way Lacan,
contraryto Bataille, "eradicates"alterity.
These questionsare necessarysteps in openingup a reflectioninspiredby the work
of Bataille and in our desire to actualize purposesyet also extend unresolved polemic
effects which this paper can only partially address. To present the necessity of such
polemical reflectionsfits Bataille's thoughtas well, which refuses to conclude and takes
its meaning from throwingaway all possible speech.
Feminine imagos are an essential leitmotif in Bataille's narrativesand, more
importantly,a cohesion factor for his thoughtthattranscendsall domains of writing to
give a foundationto the works.'With themes such as transgression,subversion,and the
1. Nousdironsque ce qui donneauxr6citsde Batailleleurcolorationperversetoute
est pr6cis6ment
ce quitoucheauntel aveudejouissancematernelle,
et plus
particulibre
f6minine.Qu'ellesoit activeou subie,qu'ellesoit celle de Simone,de
g6neralement
Marcelleou de MadameEdwarda,
c'estelle quiestle veritablesujetde la fiction.C'est
en
le
le
et la
effet,
central,
nucleus,
point
1,
hpartirduqueltoutpeutse comprendre:
position de Bataille aIl'6gard de la philosophie (h l'6gard de Hegel, de Nietzsche),,a
'
l'6conomie
l'6garddelareligionetAl'6garddela science,et sacapacit6 enbouleverser
aunomd'unatheismeint6gralsansjamaisveniroccuperlui-memela placed'unMaitre.
[Sichere 601

theirparticularly
[WewillsaythatwhatgivestoBataille'snarratives
perversecoloration
is preciselywhatconcernssucha confessionof maternal,
or moregenerally,feminine
Thissexualpleasure,whetherit beconstrued
asactiveorpassive,whether
"jouissance."
it beimputedto Simone,Marcelle,orMadame
is therealsubjectof thefiction.
Edwarda,
This,indeed,constitutesthe centralpoint,the nucleusfromwhicheverythingcanbe
understood:
Bataille'spositionsconcerningphilosophy(thusHegel andNietzsche),
religion,science,as well as his capacityto disrupttheireconomiesin the nameof an
integralatheism,a disruptionBatailleachieveswithouteverusurpingthe placeof a
Master.]
diacritics / summer 1996

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31

renewalof theLaw, we reachan aporianotonly of Bataille's textbutalso, as SusanRubinSuleimanputs it, of literarymodernity:

Whatdoes appear to me certainis thattherewill be no genuine renewal,either
in a theoryofthe avant-gardeor in itspractices,as longas everydrama,whether
textualor sexual, continuesto be envisaged-as in Bataille's pornographyand
in HaroldBloom's theoryofpoetry-in termsofa confrontationbetweenan allpowerfulfather and a traumatizedson, a confrontationstaged across and over
the body of the mother.[86-87]2
Indeed,if we look attheautofictionalpurposesandtheliteraryproductionof Bataille,
we must underlinean "aporia"in the subversive natureof his texts. This challenge to
Bataillegenerallyfocuses on his literaryworkswithoutconsideringhis theoreticalworks
beyond some "canonical"titles. Nevertheless,the lesser-knowntexts may offer another
readingof Bataille's eroticismand defuse criticismstrictlycenteredon the supposedly
pornographicand phallocentriccontentof novels like L'histoire de l'oeil and Madame
Edwarda.
Before brandingthe worksof Batailleas "sexist,"we must considerthathe was one
of thefirstmale authorsof his generationto denouncethe "castration"
dominatingsociety
and individuals.MarioPerniola,discussing a text of Georges Bataille,3 emphasizes his
condemnationof imperialismbehindthe use of manyterms:"theimperialistimage of the
eagle, even when it presentsitself with the attributesof revolution,unsuccessfullyhides
This interpretationfinds an echo in anothertext
its PrometheanandIcarianpretensions."4
of Bataille, "L'oeil pin6al,"where Bataille directly links the castrationto the myth of
Prometheus:"the legend of Prometheusis linked to the castrationcomplex," says
Bataille. Perniola's words point directly to the patriarchalorder upon which this
imperialismlies, disguisingitself as revolution;they show Bataille's profounddisagreement with such a social and individualfoundation.
Itis also difficultto affirmthepredominanceof a phallocentricstancein Bataille.The
oedipal figures, for example, are much too paradoxicalin their modes of deportment,
reestablishment,anddestruction.We shouldnote herehow "pornographicimagination"
is Bataille's answer to a deadly logic of stripping("pornologic")at the center of his
anthropologyof communication.This definition would appearcloser to the one Luce
Irigaraygives of the workof sexual difference.6Indeed,Bataille's theoryof communication deconstructs,or at least displaces, the paradigmof identity.
2. Wewillseefurtherthatthequestionisperhapsmuchmorecomplexfor
Bataille,as Carolyn
aboutBataille'saccountofhischildhood(andhence
Deanunderlines:"Infact,whatis significant
of the unconsciousgenesis of the text) is that it is characterizednot by rivalryover the mother,as

Hollierhimselfnotes,butbytheson'sdesireto be beaten-to be loved-by hisfather,to 'seethe

sun'"[240-41].
3. "Lavieille taupe et le prifixe sur dans les mots surhommeet surrialiste" [Bataille, OC 2:

93-109].
4. My translationof the original French: "l'image imperialistede l'aigle, laquelle meme
quandelle se prdsenteparke des attributsde la revolution,cache mal sa pretentionpromethkenne
et icarienne" [Perniola 15].
5. My translationof the original French: "la Mlgendede Prometheerelive du complexe de

castration"[OC2: 45].

6. "Myquestion,as my title indicates, is: is there sexual differencein the work of Georges
Bataille, or, morecarefullyput, do Bataille's textsoperatein such a way as to allow the irigarayan
thoughtof sexual differenceto emerge? My answer, which no doubtwill surprisemostfeminists,
is yes" [McWhorter33-34]. The author adds: "Irigaray,like Bataille, is attempting to think
differencesetfreefrom its servitudeto thesame,a dynamiceventthatshe calls 'sexualdifference'

[351.
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Since communication happens on a shared line of flaw, of wound where two

individualsescape their"homogeneity,"flow into each other,Bataille's anthropologyof
communicationpartakesnot only of a subversionof the Law in breakingprivileges of
identitybut also implicitly poses a definitionof individualsescaping theiridentity.Here
the debate focuses on the "identitary"statusof the "loss"of singularities,of identities.
Does it representan absenceof differences?Probably,butin a mannerwheretheparadigm
of difference merges singularitiesby substitutingitself for the paradigmof identity.
"Undifference"therefore contains as much danger in the paradigmof difference as
difference does in the paradigmof identity.Whatprecisely is at stake here?
On the one hand we have "indistinction"in the paradigmof difference, what we
observe with Bataille's communication.However, this would form the opposite side of
a differenceworkinginto a paradigmof identity,both leading to what we can qualify as
"thesame."Shouldwe addresstheproblemin anotherway?Is thereanalternativeto these
two poles of the paradigmof identity?
Bataille always claimed that the "undifferentiated"
being was nothing and had to
surrenderto the requirementsof a differentiation.This also seems located in "inner
differentiation":difference,within Bataille's anthropologyof communication,is not to
be found in the open structureof individualsduringtheirattemptto communicatebut in
an innerjump throughthe woundto reachthe void. We mustrememberthatthe wordevil
offers a metonymicreadingin French(le mal andla blessure),whichBatailleused widely
to explainhow the woundis the necessaryconditionof a negativecommunicationwhere
two individualsrealize theirsingularitywhile they breakthe privilegesof the "same"by
using the heterologicalpower of disintegrationor even alterity.This resultsin an "inner
differentiation"within the paradigmof difference in writing, not to the "undifferentiation" to which some criticalreadingsof Bataille's communicationmay lead. Indeed, to
justify andvalidatethesewe mustdeal with"innerdifference,"andnot only with a general
definition of Bataille's communicationwhere two individuals attempt to mark their
differences in spite of an absence of singularity,which reinstallsthe very paradigmof
identity againstwhich Bataille is fighting.
We have to stop "dissociating"oedipal representationsof Bataille's narrativesand
tryto elaboratea moreconsistentmeaningthatalso integratestherestof his works.Before
saying, like PhilippeSollers, thatWoman("LaFemme")is used, in Bataille's eroticism,
only as a supportfor transgression,we have to question the status of subjectivity and
identity within the communication of such eroticism. We should also look at the
significantpresenceof a breakingpointin almostall of Bataille's texts to see if this offers
the possibility of rejectingthe Law or reconfiguringit in "new"terms.This paradoxical
shift inscribedin Bataille's writingitself may offer a model of textualityclose to many
"invaginated"texts, such as those of Irigarayor even Blanchot.7
Recent critical analyses have drawn on the works of authors such as Finas,
Alexandriane,andKristevain orderto betterassess feminineimagos, anda confrontation
with new ideas is essential if we are to clarify many highly polemic issues raised by
Bataille'swritingwithregardtoliterarymodernity.Literarytheoryandthepsychoanalytical
criticism of Bataille's texts seem clearly more developed in the United States. The
polarization between European and North American analyses make for "different"
readings that deserve our consideration.I am thinking in particularof the difference
between eroticism and pornographythat Suleimanwrote about:
Thiswasprecisely thekindof reading,or misreading,thatSusanSontagforesaw
and tried to ward off when she insisted thatBataille's novel had to be read in
thecontextof Europeanavant-gardewriting: "lackingthatcontext."She wrote,
7. Thisis to say thatalterityin writingis not,obviously,an anatomical
privilege.
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33

the novels "mustprove almost unassimilablefor English and Americanreaders-except as merepornography,inexplicablyfancy trash." [79]
Wherefrancophonesuse "eroticism"in theiranalysis of Bataille, anglophonesuse
"pornography."Here appears the difference between a reading that puts aside the
These
representationalcontentanda readingthatSuleimanqualifiesas "ultra-thematic."
differencespertainto many factors,of which I will emphasizehere only basic characteristics.
While the firstinsists on eroticismas theproductof culturalandpoliticalsubversion,
the second sees pornographyas the result of political alienation of women's bodies.
Paradoxically,the firstsupportsa culturalidentitygamegroundedin a tradition,while the
second seems to be draggedin a spiralexplainedin partby the searchfor a tradition.But
the polarization between these two linguistic cultures tends to disappear while the
translationof Bataille's Oeuvrescompletesis carriedon: thereis no impermeabilitythat
would allow us to qualifythedivergences.This polarization,however,does not necessarily do justice to Bataille's thought,particularlywhen it seems taken out of context, as
Suleimanand Sontag have argued[see "ThePornographicImagination"].Also, even if
this soft "opposition"tends to disappear,there is still a risk of creatingother series of
perhapsstrongeroppositions,which would not necessarilymake Bataille's texts better.
Scriptural "Praxis"and Alterityin Bataille
Bataillesacrificeslanguagein anunproductivewritingwherethe value of loss diverts,for
its own strange benefit, that of use. This is a systematic operation of "unwriting"
This work of dissolutenessis inscribedinto the antiarchitectural
move("d6s6criture").
ment of a thoughtsupportedby transgressivewriting.In writingagainsteach sentence,
each word and in multiplyingincongruousnetworksof meanings,Bataille gives to his
writinga doubletask:denouncingthe "homogeneity"of discoursesandreintroducingthe
sacredinto experience.
This sacrificialwritingcreateslinguistic gaps which allow Bataille to representan
"impossible"pleasure.In doing so, Bataille inscribesthe "impossiblereal"at the center
of a speech voluntarilysplit. This irrepresentablebreakguides a useful idleness where
expenditurein writingexpresses, by its autocastrativerefusal, the freedom of one who
chooses to speak in such an "impossible"way. The body of the authoris thus underthe
authorityof a handthaterasesit, anddisappearstowardan impossiblesovereignty,in an
operationnot differentfrom what Bataille calls communication.
Referringto the figuresandmotives Batailleuses, his writingplays upona voluntary
contradictionof signs, symptoms by which the author will operate this ontological
displacementnecessaryto his subjectivization.Batailledisappearsbutabove all wantsto
disappearfrom his own (intolerableand guilty) vision to find himself absent, gone, in
rapture,sovereign, "other."
This remindsus not only of the presence of alterityand heterology8in Bataille's
literary figures but also that these figures lie in his practice of writing. We are then
witnesses to a curiouslandscapeanimatedby a "subsumptive"logic where the referent
becomes "erectile."By "erectibility,"we assume that the referent does not indicate
representedrealityby thewordbutthatit constitutes,by theeffect of aradicalpragmatism,
therealitself. This is also why we find herea confirmationof the absenceof the symbolic
in Bataille,or rathera nonstopmovementbetweenthe realandthe symbolic thattendsto
8. Heterology is a thoughtof rejection, exclusion, radical alterity ("heteros"), expulsion,
excretion,separation,and so forth.

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converttheirrespectivefields into an "impossible"topic oscillatingaroundthe imaginary

and the symbolic upon which writinghas the power to fix the origin andthe destination.
The impossiblecould thendesignate,forBataille,a mediationbetweentheimaginary
and the symbolic operatedby writingconsideredas the real.The impossible would be a
crossing place defining an empty sign: that explains, on the one hand, the subject of a
disappearingwriting,the subjectsigning itself as emptinessand, on the other hand, the
absence of gates between the referentand language. Better still, we can consider the
impossible as an expressionof this radicalalteritywhich the text constantlyevokes. The
impossible,therefore,wouldrepresenta writingof theOtherthataimsatyet fails theOther
in writingor the Otherof writing(which aims at a writingof the Other).Such complete
transparencyreflects the essence of the impossible where a subjectdisappearsbetween
two widespreadrepresentationsof himself, an impossiblesubjectvoluntarilycastrated.9
Thisdispossessive natureof writingdictatesanunproductiveuse of the wordin a selfsacrificialgift which tries not only for the suspensionof time but for the maintenanceof
a momentof rupturethatBataillesees as the suspensionof workingandidentitaryorders.
It isn't surprisingthatsuch a practiceof writingarrangessyntax in conjunctionwith its
heterogeneousresonance and, by doing so, introducesan outside,'0a radical alterity.
Radical, because the "outside"of the self and the absence express the reasoning of a
fracturedspeech, not a refusalexpressedthroughmuteness(like neuterin Blanchot)but
a transcendentalsubjectivizationwhose main characteristicconsists of not defining its
quiddityby a classical dialectic opposition.Indeed,a binaryreductionof the opposition
doesn't work, since the authortakes it, in a kind of burstingAufhebung,to multiply it,
wishing to recognizehimself by a self-negatingoperation.Bataille says, in the introduction of MadameEdwarda:
Being is given to us in an intolerablesurpassingof being, not less intolerable
thandeath.Andsince, in death, in thesame timethatit is given it is removed,we
have tofind it in thefeelingofdying, in thoseintolerablemomentswhereit seems
that we are dying, because the being in us is only there by excess, when the
plenitude of horrorandjoy coincide."
Bataillerecognizeshimself only throughwhatmaintainshim as a strangerto himself:
I am remindedhere of Lacan'sAphanisis.Indeed,Bataille's writingworks into a double

9. We must rememberthat the sign appears to be linked to the impotenceof maintaining

ascendant verticality of copulative connection between syntactic operators. Francis Gandon
writes: "Laverticalitedescendante(scatologie) ddsignechez Bataille la modaliti directe (et nide
parce que directe)du 'reelau semiotique':l'impossibiliti de la metaphore[Descending verticality
(scatology) designates, in Bataille, thedirectmodality(deniedbecausedirect)fromthe 'real to the
semiotic': the impossibilityof metaphor]" [36]. This is to say that semiotics is bornfrom the
expulsionof the real and the symbolic.Semioticsis constitutedin the regressivephase, metaphorically "impotence." Can we say that the sign participates in this "impotence" that Bataille
denouncedin the patriarchal order? However, "impotence,"as we will see, is a condition of the
possible; it conditions a strange strategy of dispossessionfrom which Bataille hopes to reach
absence, communication'sachievement,death, sovereignty,and so on.
10. "[L]e lieu oif s'elabore la pratiquede Bataille est un ailleurs, d'oi elle nous interrogeet
nous fait signe [[T]he locus where Bataille's writing practice is born is an elsewhere which
questions and calls to us]" [Marmande110].
11. My translation of the original French: "L'Vetre
nous est donne dans un dipassement
intoldrablede l'tre, non moins intoldrableque la mort.Etpuisque, dans la mort,en meme temps
qu'il nous est donnd,il nous est retire,nous devons le chercherdans le sentimentde la mort,dans
ces momentsintolerableso' il semblequenous mourrons,parce que l' tre en nous n 'estplus1Mque
par exces, quand la plinitude de l'horreuret celle de la joie coincident"[OC 3: 11-12].

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log that determines a "between-place"conception of writing very close to Lacan's

Spaltung.
Of the Difference between Copulaand Hyphen
Bataille and Lacan, Bataille-Lacan:such is the differencein formulationthatexpresses
much more than the one between copula and hyphen. We can talk of Bataille-Lacan
outside of texts, outsideof authorizedspaces;still, theirrespectiveworksforce us to use
"Batailleand Lacan"to qualify the distance between their theoreticalworks. But the
returnof this differencebetweencopulaandhyphencan enrichthe theorywithoutbeing
consideredas either fraudor scandal,because it is from this friendshipthatthe cloak is
greatlylifted.
The questionof the subjectmay be the most evidentpointof articulationin BatailleLacan'stopology.It also positionsBataille'slpse (Lacan'sAphanisis)aheadof a pleasure
thatdestabilizesthe subjectandshows the connectionof pleasure,froma Lacanianpoint
of view, to an ethics of truthbut also to the heterogeneityof the real, conceived as a gap,
as an impossible. Excenteredsubjectsearchinglike Lacan's occurs throughdecentered
speech ahead of consciousness: the subject constitutes himself by continuous "withdrawal,"just as in Bataille, wherethe wordis the sovereignway to decenteringandeven
"de-centering,"that is to say, the splitting of the subject in an incessantly renewed
experience.
Thisleadsus to thequestionof theimpossiblesubject,orratherthe"unsymbolizable"
self, since it is associated with a compulsive definition of a subject on its way to
dissolution: "Bataille and Lacan conceived the 'true' self, paradoxically, as an
unsymbolizableandhence inaccessibleother.... The self, in theirview, is impossibleto
locate," suggests CarolynDean [5-6].
However,we shouldnot believe in a perfecttransparencybetweentheirconceptions
of the subject.ForBataille, contraryto Lacan,the subjectis alreadysplit, a consequence
both of inverted(negative) Oedipus and the priorityof the imaginary.In Bataille, this
results not only in the ineffectiveness of symbolizationbut in the possibility that it can
occur, in and by an impossible thatdoes not have the same characteristicsin Lacan.
Lacan constructsa self that becomephallic and uprightthrougha process of
splitting, whereasBataille constructsa self that is always already split (in his
imaginary, castrated). In Lacan, the self is at once symbolizedand lost; in
Bataille the self "lives itself as a loss," meaning that it is caught up in
paradoxicalmobilitythatcan neverbefrozen, petrifiedby a gaze in the mirror.
[Dean 246]
The self becomes phallicin Lacanin a recognitionprocessmarkedby the separation
of the specularimage, whereasBataille insists insteadon an "already-split"subjectnot
looking to reinstate the missing image but to maintain this originary default at the
foundation of its identity. Bataille rejects the "all-powerful"symbolic and a rigid
separationbetween the imaginaryand the symbolic. In Lacan, the subject's alienation
justifies the recourseto the symbolic;in Bataille, this alienationconditionsa subversive
desire for the Law.
Althoughdifferentimplicationsariseconcerningthe questionof the subject,we find
common preoccupations,such as thatof producinga subjectdefined by imperativesof
desire ratherthanreason,an irrationalsubjectratherthana rationalone, as Dean argues
here:for "bothBatailleandLacan,the self is indisputablyandfundamentallyconstituted
in andthroughdesireratherthanreasonandmorality"[247]. Moreover,bothauthorsoffer
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diacritics / summer 1996

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a definitionthatevokes alterity:"BothBatailleandLacanthus formulateda self thatthe

law constitutesas an irretrievableother[247]."This similaritycould be a consequenceof
Kojeve's seminar but most likely Lacan was influenced by Bataille's objection to
Kojeve's solved negativityat the end of History.
Finally, Lacan's tributeto Bataille would seem even greaterif we were to consider
that Lacan's work began with women; I suggest that in this matterLacan's biggest
influencewas probablyBataille.This seems morethanlikely if we rememberthatLacan,
at the time, triedto listen to an "idiologue"(psychosis) in the absence of an interlocutor
or of an "objectivating"image of the body, while, at the same time, Batailleundertookan
explorationof virtualdementia(throughhis fictionalcharacters).This enterprisealready
attests,in the narrativedimension,to a reflectionof Batailleuponpsychopathology,to an
experience on the couch (with Dr. Borel), and finally to a space of interlocutionwhere
Bataille defines the outlines of a body still dislocated in Lacan. Bataille, throughthe
disseminationof such a scaredbody, will find anotherway to meet himself at an "other"
impossible level. How can we not be temptedto believe thatLacantunedinto Bataille's
words and those vague, disquieting, cruelly cryptic "steamingbodies" in Bataille's
stories?Yet, if we areto betterunderstanda filiationaboutwhich thereis so muchmore
to say, we mustfirsttryto convertliteratureinto theory;thuselaboratinguponBataille's
conception of Oedipus.

Familial Scenes
ReadingL'histoirede l'oeil and "Coincidences,"we realizethe omnipresenceof a father
thatreiteratesthe entireoedipalscenario.The figureof the (absent)motheris imbricated
with a castratedfather,better still, a fathermiraculouslycured by castration:"we are
confrontedwith the ambiguityof the paternalimago, its functionas centerof prohibition
and sublimation.Here, Bataille's ambivalencereiteratesthe ambivalencecharacteristic
of the entireoedipal drama"[Dean 237].
This concentrationof the oedipaldramainto the fatherfigure calls for moreprecise
formulationswhich may allow us to understandwhy, consequentto the ambiguityof this
figure,Batailleupholdsa "polymorphism"thatculminatesin a kindof eulogy of primary
narcissismand perversion.This concentrationinto the fatherfigure is the answer that
Bataille gave to his desire to transgressthe Law, a desire that was experimentedwith
collectively witha decenteredsubject'sconceptionandforwhichmasochismhasbeenthe
historicalemblem for the avant-gardeand Surrealism.Masochismhas been the emblem
of a generationpraisingin Sade-at least a figure of him-the desire of a revolution(by
a revolutionof desire) testifyingto the failureof the father.In Bataille, this answeris set
against a parodic amplificationof a dying impotent father;at this point of Bataille's
intellectualjourney (1928-35), it leads less to a new model of law and textualitythanto
the rehabilitationof the fatheras a subjectwho no longerwantsto assumethe carnageof
the GreatWar but ratherwants to live out the destiny of History's ruins. This "new"
subjectwantsto live out his own breachedhistorywrittenby a castratedanddispossessed
subject.
As this oedipal configurationstays in the rangeof the novel, we can talk neitherof
perversion nor basically of perverse novels: we should think simultaneously of a
"complexification"of the perverseposition supportedby the novel and of the symbolic
which managesandmaintainsthe novel in the realmof the imaginaryandof the author's
imaginarywrittensymbolically.All this leads us back to a paradigmof writing:
Susan Suleiman raised the question about how perverse "perverse"avantgarde workreallyis. Thatis, she questionsthe revolutionaryclaimsof surrealist
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painters as well as Bataille's "subversiveintent." She asks whether their

perversityrepresentsa rebellionagainst thefather, whose authoritythey claim
to challenge: "couldone of the underlyingfantasiesfuellingthisprogrammatic
avant-garde picture be not the "straight"oedipal fantasy of displacing the
father and sexually possessing the mother, but its homosexual variant: the
fantasy of being possessed by thefather?" [Dean 237] 2
We see this pictureexplicitly when Bataille confesses thathis love for his fatheris
intrinsicallylinked with the terrorof having being abused by him. Perhapswe should
understandthat there is anothervariable of this formula, indicated by the reversible
characterof his writing:Bataillewantsto possess thefather,be thisfather(to be this "blind
god"), alreadycastrated,blind.This is even clearerif we considerthatthis fatherfigure,
in condensing the mother's, makes the lattera phallic mother.The latter,equally "allpowerful,"would be the anguishedanswerto the conflict of paternalcrisis which Lacan
theorizedunderthe creationof symbolic order.
So, to the classical oedipal configurationand to its homosexualvariable,we would
addthe one withinBataille,who tendsnot to solve the two butto confrontthemagain,an
oedipal scenariowhere both the fatherandthe motherremain"a-sexual,"sexuality only
favoring an effusion of the "obscenity"which seems to be, in Bataille, the condition to
access the election, the impossible conditionof being, and even then by the impossible.
This accords, as we will see, with the conceptionBataille develops of women's sexual
status.
Bataille writes:"I am perhapsthreeyears old, nakedlegs on my father'sknees and
my sex bloody as the sun... .",3 All possible definitionof the subjectmust integratethis
fundamentalmutilation defining as much the condition of being and the real as a
constitutiveanguishwherethesubjectis "alreadycastrated";it is this "electedcastration"
which determinesa polymorphousdesireanda dividedidentity."Myfatherslaps me and
I see the sun,"'14says Bataille: this fits accordinglywith the words later developed in
"Coincidences."
In this short autofictionalnarrative,Bataille does not define the therapeuticuse of
L'histoirede l'oeil, as he will laterconfess to MadeleineChapsalin an interviewin 1961
[see Chapsal].However, we rapidlyrealize the analytictenorof the fiction throughthe
desire of writingto forget, even more because this desire to forget is doubledby a lapse
of memoryof whathe is andwhathe can do, of a conflict betweenwhat he doesn't want
to be and what he doesn't want to do to remedy the conflict. Does ignoring his
forgetfulnessmarkthe deliberatecharacterof his analyticalfiction which is supportedby
almost all the novels? This "indetermination"of the writing, as Bataille insists on
describingL'histoirede l'oeil, canbe linkedstrategicallyto freeassociation.Finally,what
can be said aboutBataille's "differed"surpriseat bringingtogetherthe narratorand the
authorof L'histoirede l'oeil? We know thatBataillequalifiedthatnovel somewhereelse
as a "precipitate"of his curewithAdrienBorel.Butthisdoesn't tell us if he usedL'histoire
de l'oeil as an analyticalprecipitate.It rathertends to indicatea psychoanalyticalgame
of fiction within the novel thatsupportsthe organizationof his stories:always what the
worst can tell.
Anotherquestionallows us to enterinto the heartof Bataille's relationto castration
and Oedipus.Dare we say thatL'histoirede l'oeil really solved Bataille's "problems"?
12. Dean adds: "Thatrebelliondisguises a repudiationof the mother'sperceived castration
and hence a resumptionof the phallic position in the artist's very effortto denounce it" [237].
13. My translationof the original French: "J'ai comme trois ans les jambes nues sur les
genoux de monpare et le sexe en sang commedu soleil . . ." ["Reves," OC 3: 10].
14. My translationofthe original French: "Monpare me gifle etje vois le Soleil" [OC 3: 10].

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39

Whattherapeuticefficiency was containedin thisdesireto forgetin the novel?Also, what

were the implications,as it was the "inaugural"story, for the rest of his production?In
other words, as Dean underscores:"in more psychoanalytic terms to which Bataille
himself alluded,how did he resolve or not his oedipus complex?"[235-36].
In an imaginarydialoguethatrespectsthe integrityof Bataille's works,MonaCanoGauthierprovidesus with an answerthattestifies to the way Bataille tries to voluntarily
dismiss the conventionalrealizationof Oedipus:"Youthussee God as a blindfather,just
like your own father.In a momentof despair,you also seem to want to identify with the
one andthe other."'15This sentencespecifies the metonymicrelation,in Bataille, between
God and the fatherusing a visual metaphor.16The expression "paird'yeux" reveals an
identificationwithbothGodandthefather,withone like the other.The otheris notof one,
in Bataille, but of the other.Thus the law is alreadyfracturedat its foundationor rather
sets its foundationin the fracture;also, it is in the searchfor and the identificationwith
a "handicap,"andwithall its substitutivefigures,thatwe findtheone in identificationwith
the other.
In this negativeoedipalconception,we come to understandthe relationbetweenthe
blindnessof the fatherand the phallicismof the motheras Bataille's way of seeing the
fatherthatreveals the "sexuation"of the mother.Thus, Bataille eroticizes the castration
of the fatherand the phallicismof the motherinto a monstrouscoitus where the mother
enjoys introducingherauthorityinto herhusband'sinjury.In this voluntarydismissal of
the oedipal scenario,assumedas such, the prohibitionof the motherdoes not mean that
primarynarcissismbecomessecondarybutratherleads to theidentificationof the mother
withthe fatherthrougha commoncastration.Then,insteadof havinga "dissexualization"
of impulses,as in classicalscenariosof perversion,we obtain,as a last resort,a permanent
sexualizationof themwithinthe narratives,wherea child is forced,in orderto participate
in a reality-whether it be psychoticor not-to identifywith this phallicmotherandthis
castratedfather.In otherwords,Bataille's fictions insistperhapsless on the failureof the
oedipal scenariothanon the significantmannerin which the experienceof his subjectis
dependent on this all-too-negative oedipus. Thus, as Cano-Gauthiersays: "This is a
negative oedipus which becomes a positive one.""'7
Finally, this unresolved, inverted
shows
that
is
the
"castrated
not totally castratedbut, again, is
father"
oedipal question
"magnified"by his handicap. Thus, there is no real castrationbut an elective selfmutilation(sacrifice),of which we find tracesin storieslike "Coincidences,""Rave,"and
more generally,at the foundationof Bataille's practiceof writing.
This double identificationwith the fatherhas consequences:"theidentificationthat
would make Bataille a man is, paradoxically,also the identificationthat revives the
agressiveambivalenceimmanentin the son's relationto the primaryobjectof identification" [Dean 241]. We then have a resexualizationof Oedipusand its maintenancein the
imaginary.This appearsto be impossiblebutpreciselyformsBataille's law. Finally, we
have recurrentidentificationwith whatsticks to objectalandprimaryorders.Why?Here,
Bataille's conceptionof pleasureand of the subjectthatfollows intervenelater.
Maintainingprimaryidentificationleads the child to identify his desire with prohibitionandhis self withrepression.Thisis also why thefatherfigurereflectsthe ambiguity
15.Mytranslation
donedeDieuunpareaveuglecomme
of theoriginalFrench:"Vousfaites
votreproprepare.Dansunmomentde disespoir,voussemblezd'ailleursvouloirvousidentifier
t l'uncommea l'autre"[255].
16. Frenchis essentialto understand
thisrelationbetweenGodandhisfather.Batailleuses
theexpression"paird'yeux"(pairofeyes),whichis linkedtothemeaningof "pere-Dieu"
(fatherhasnotyetnoted:sightisfrequentlyassociatedwithmastery.
God).Nothingthatpsychoanalysis
InBataille,however,a strongervisionis associatedwithblindness.
17. My translationof the originalFrench:"I/s'agit 16d'unoedipenegatifqui tourneau
positif" [57].

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between upholdingand prohibitingthe Law itself as well as the subversive desire that
conditions its transgression.This brings us back to the eroticizationof castration,in
Bataille melted to a pleasurewhich cannotbe fixed; pleasurein experimentingwith the
father'sterror,which standsfor horrorof pleasurebutalso the frightof the sexuatedbody
of themother,of women.All of thisis virtuallypresentin his scripturalexperience,in what
he called "l'urgenced'6crire."
Another consequence of this Oedipus is to be located in the writing itself: "He
reconceivedthose boundaries[betweenprohibitionandtransgression]in termsof a cure
that was always pathological,a pathology thatalways operatedas a cure"[Dean 243].
Thus, the referenceto the split betweenprohibitionandtransgressionwould not only be
a "translation"of Bataille's Oedipus,its recapitulation,but a pathologicalcure to which
the pathological characterwould be the key to an unending, a necessary therapy.'
Transgressionexceeds prohibitionbut never terminatesit.
The concentrationof oedipalfigureson the fatherexplainsin partthe absence of the
mother or the disguise of a mother "becomingphallic."The impotence of the father,
according to the genealogy that Bataille gives it, links the discovery of his mother's
sexuality,a pleasurableplace,to theinjuryof his father.Bataillewritesin "Coincidences":
Thedoctor went into the next roomwith my motherwhen the insane blind man
screamed infront of me with a stentorianvoice: "Hey,Doc, let me knowwhen
you've finished screwing my wife!" This sentence, which destroyed in one
instant the demoralizingeffects of a strict upbringing,left behind it a kind of
constantobligation,whichuntilnow had been involuntarilyand unconsciously
felt: the necessity to continuallyfind its equivalentin everysituationin whichI
find myself and that is what explains, in large part, L'histoirede l'oeil.9
Here not only does Bataille subordinatethe originof L'histoirede l'oeil (and all his
production) to this reversal of perspective on his own education; this more innate
affirmationof the fatherreveals the sexual body of the motherin the same way thatthe
absenceof the latteranticipatesthe significantcharacterof feminineimagos in his works.
Thus, Bataille feels "the necessity to continually find its equivalent in every
situation"not only in orderto demonstratethe necessity of the relationto his fatherwhich recalls the analyticalgame of fiction in L'histoirede l'oeil-but to find the will to
convince himself anew of thatincredibleobscenerevelation,to identifythe lucidityof his
blind fatherwith the sexuatedbody of an absentmotherand with sacredpleasure.
Bataille indicates in "Coincidences"that he subordinates,from the beginning, his
"pornographicimagination"to a "pornologic"thought,a logic of deadly stripping.The
flash of lucidityof theapathetic,ambiguousfigureof thefatherwill be thecentralelement
of a writingthatcan be consideredbothas a springboardanda rampartto desire,a writing
that seems to try out this terrible revelation of a woman's sexuated body linked to
obscenity and pleasureto horror.
Bataille's text (we speak here about his first publication-under a pseudonym)
becomes a metaphorforthemother's(absent)body;moreover,it anticipatesin themother
18.A therapyof maintained
alienation,likethatof thesplitsubjectof thetransgression.
This
follows,naturally,in thefootstepsof theunsolvedOedipus.
19. Mytranslationof theoriginalFrench:"Ledocteurs' taitretirdavecmameredansla
chambrevoisinelorsquel'aveugledimentcriadevantmoiavec unevoixde stentor:'Disdonc,
docteur,quandtuaurasfini depinermafemme!'Pourmoi,cettephrasequia ditruiten unclin
d'oeil les effetsdimoralisantsd'uneiducationsdverea laisseapreselle unesorted'obligation
constante,inconsciemment
subiejusqu'iciet nonvoulue:la ndcessitide trouvercontinuellement
sondquivalent
danstoutesles situationsoi je me trouveet c'estce qu'explique
en grandepartie
Histoirede l'oeil"[OC 1: 77 ("Co'ncidences
")].
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41

thedynamicsof prohibitionandtransgressionwhich takesits sourceabove herbody.The

father reveals to the son the "sexuation"of an ambiguous body stuck between the
impossibilityof being sexuatedand the retrospectivefact thatit has always been so. The
son is locatedhereatthe heartof thefailingof primarynarcissism.The son's organization
of his identityis dependentuponthe integrationof the ambivalentnatureof his mother's
body and the linkage of parentalidentities broken at the revelation of the mother's
"pleasurable"body mergedwith the obscenityof a paralytic'sscream.Such would be the
metaphorof oedipal conflict in L'histoirede l'oeil; this inauguraltext furtherdevelops
and enhancesBataille's otherliterarytexts.
The absenceof the mother,in this first storyof Bataille,prepareshis "pornographic
imagination"but also positions women as the "blind spot" of his system of thought.
BernardSichere commentson this subjectthatBataille displaces the symbolic position
of masteryinto a mislayingplace, thatof the mother.We could say thatthis presenceof
desirefor an absentmotherin L'histoirede l'oeil and "Coincidences"will be found later
in his desire for women translatedas absence and sovereignty.
We can thusinterpretthe absenceof the motherin "Coincidence"as "meaningful."
Not only does it preparethe way for some of Bataille's novels but the silence which the
mothermustsubmitto putsherin the sameplace as the father.This is illustratedin novels
like MadameEdwardaand the feminine imagos of Ma mere: "At the same time, these
womenrepresent'phallicmothers'becausetheyrebelagainstthefatherwhile repudiating
the mother'sfemininity"[Dean 238].
Finally, we must incorporatethis elective castration, supported by a negative
Oedipus,into our understandingof the scripturalactivity seen as the will to impossible
recognition,as a "rencontremanqu6e."The productionof the text can then be explained
at thejunction of desire and Law: "Inthis new version of literaryproduction,the novel
is bornat the junctureof unconsciousdesire and the father'slaw" [Dean 242]. The text
is thus the result of maintainingthe tension between unconscious desire and the Law,
conceived as the source of pleasure and repression.The tension between desire and
prohibition generates this series of texts, "rencontresmanquees," as "sublimating"
productsof the voluntaryfailureof a castrationcompulsion.

Imaginaryor Symbolic?
Later,Lacan tried to conceptualizethe oedipal scenarioin the same fashion as Bataille
suggestedalmostfifty yearsbeforehim.He is said to have theorized,at the end of his life,
a subjectcharacterizedby his own emptiness,thatis to say withoutreferenceto a sexuated
primacy defined by a symbolic order. In this primacy where the symbolic looks like
Bataille's omnipresentimaginary,there is a much strongerimbricationbetween the
symbolic and the imaginarythanthe Lacaniandoxa generallyimplies. Topic configuration would workin synchronyratherthanindependently.Such an approachhas less to do
with stages of identificationthanwith a ladderof degrees simultaneouslyrecapitulating
all stages in differentordersaccordingto each case. We find this relativeambivalencein
oedipalfiguresin Bataille.The Lacaniansubject,characterizedby his own emptiness,is
both beyond and under symbolization,a bit like the schizoid process of language in
Bataille expressed by the presence of a heterogeneous element at the center of his
heterologicalpoetics.
In ignoringthe frontiersbetween the imaginaryand the symbolic and in criticizing
the idea of a symbolic father("phallus"),Bataille not only attackedthe patriarchalorder
butalso insistedon a certainneutralityof theLaw, not estrangedfromthe "emptiness"of
the subject.Lacanwas also working,at the end of his life, on the productionof some kind
of "thirdsex," a neutergender.Neuter,in Bataille,distinguishesitself from an androgy42

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nous neutralityin thatit operatesas an internalbisexualityfor both sexes. This allows us

to say that Bataille's "innerdifferentiation"avoids a certain sclerosis inherentin the
classical model of the androgyne-that stasis of the neuter. Bataille's subjects (and
characters)thus participatein an Aufhebungliketransgressionof gender, identity, and
knowledge.Thus,it appearsas thoughBataille,in a certainway, "preceded"Lacanin the
representationof his "perverse"subject.
A fundamentaldistinctionexists, however, betweenBataille andLacanconcerning
the symbolic, a difference elucidatedby a semiotic analysis of Bataille's writing: the
absence of the symbolic in Bataille (which is expressedby a suspensionof the site of the
superegoin his novels) is corollaryto the absenceof a symbolicfather.But whatin Lacan
distinguishesthe separationand differencebetween the imaginaryand the symbolic? In
otherwords, what links the "perspectiveof truth"to the symbolic orderor to the father?
Let us referhereto otherauthors:20"Lacannevermadeclearhow secondaryidentification
desexualizes repression,never clarifies the differences between the symbolic and the
imaginaryfrom what Borch-Jacobsencalls the 'perspectiveof truth'"[Dean 244n]. To
which MikkelBorch-Jacobsenadds:"itneedsno greatgenius to noticethatso-called true
speech and so-called imaginaryspeech arein the same boat.How, then,can Lacanclaim
to distinguishbetweenthem?Above all, how can he certifythe differencebetweenthem,
since the criterionof truthcannotbe exhibited-since the truthabouttruthis thatit shows
itself only in its retreat"[118].
This less-impermeablefrontierbetweenthe imaginaryandthe symbolic eithergives
morecreditto Bataille's choice of maintainingprimaryidentificationor ultimatelyshows
that Lacan's conception of the symbolic is closer than we believe to Bataille's oedipal
scenario,of which we can fully assess theimportancewithina writingwherethe "sacred"
motive of dispossession is central.
The proximityof Lacanto Bataille consists not only of the evident loans noticed by
almost all critics but also of the dynamics of the centralconcepts, and this throughout:
"Again, Bataille's and Lacan's father figures are not the same. Bataille's is always
headless,andLacan'salwayshasa head.Butas I havemaintained,Lacanis perhapscloser
to Bataillethanwe realize.Lacan'ssymbolicis not necessarilyso distinctfromBataille's
own reworkingof the Oedipalstory"[Dean 249].
In addition,it seems thatBataille conceives the Law(s) as a space of "enfranchisement,"an anchoragepoint for the autonomizationof a subjectof transgression.Such a
subject, still suspendedat a stage of primaryidentification,standsprecisely on the thin
boundarybetween the imaginaryand the symbolic. He stands where the Law and the
desire to subvertit coincide.
Thus, in Bataille, in this dialectic of sovereignty(or "self-foundation"),we see not
the curtailingof the symbolic butits "expatriation."
The expressionis not innocent,since
Bataille's practiceof writinglets us establishthatfromthereferent's"erectibility,"where
objectandcode dissolve, he also partitionstherealfromthe symbolic.This "expatriation"
consists not only of a will to fight patriarchy,mastery, and so forth but also of a new
working of the symbolic into the effect of the real that Bataille's scripturalpractice
releases.
Again, contraryto Lacan,Batailledoes notwantto maintaina separationbetweenthe
imaginary and the symbolic; he wants merely to nourish the tension between their
boundaries.In otherwords,he experimentswith "hownot to become crazy"in theorizing
pleasure as the Law.21 Pleasureis linked here to transgressionand repression.To link
pleasurewith transgressionleads us to perpetuallyreconsiderthe Law as unique Law.
20. In accordance witha "bonmot" ofLacan, who said that truthalways dependson others.
21. Andstill: "L'&criture
conjurela craintede devenirfou.Elle donneau texteeti l'existence
en morceauxune image d'identite[Writingconjuresup thefear of becominginsane. It gives to a
shatteredtext and existence a semblanceof identity]"[Marmande185].

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43

Batailledoes it in orderto testifyto the ontologicalbasis of his split andemptysubject(of

transgression),which has to reiteratethe "virile"experienceof a confrontationwith the
father,with the Law. But this by no meansproves thatthereis no Law in Bataille or that
this generalizedtransgressioncannotappealto an ethics of truth.Since in this case nature
would be law, could we then distinguishit from Lacan's concept?Finally, is it possible
to formulatein psychoanalyticaltermsthe incidences of this Law's theorization?
This bringsus to an essential question:could the impossiblebe broughtcloser, in a
psychoanalyticalcontext, to the Law, the symbolic, and castration?Perhaps,but if the
impossible can representBataille's conception of the symbolic, a symbolic which is
opposed to the real in Lacan's psychoanalysis,we could then demonstratethatBataille
would clearly have influenced,in spite of himself (in spite of whathis thoughtallows us
at first to think),the carriageof castrationinto Lacan's symbolic. We could answeryes
to our first questionin the event thatthe impossiblestandsin partfor Bataille's negative
Oedipus. We must rememberthat the father's figure (and its significantcorollary, the
mother)in Bataille standsin place of both alterityand the Law, with the consequences
shown earlier.This oedipalconflict is not resolved and its tensionsnourishthe narrative
in such a mannerthatthe impossibilityis to be consideredas Law. Thus,the fatherfigure,
as animpossiblelaw, is linkedto theambivalenceof dealingwiththe "rest,"thenegativity
in the Aufhebung;or then again, at a less "post-Hegelian"level, the ambivalence in
condensingintothefatherthedilemmaof prohibition(father)andof sublimation(mothertext)-transgression(mother-body)-even if the mother,in my opinion,is not sublimated
in Bataille but representsthe compulsive repetitionof a failed Oedipus invertedin an
eroticizationof castration.
In any case, this transgressionis articulatedto this unsymbolizableplace manquie,
wheredesireandpleasurecoincide withtheimpossibilityof its realization.Transgression
then is the expressionof the impossiblewill of pleasure,of the impossible law in which
the illusion of pleasureinscribesitself. Are we very close to Lacan here?
In short,the father'sconception(thatof the "Law")is not the same for the two. In
Bataille, the fatherbearsthe dimensionnot of possession but of loss. This determinesa
differentconceptionof boththeoedipalscenarioandsomevariationsof theunsymbolizable
characterof the subject. Indeed, if the subject is "impossible,"it is through what
constituteshim as such (an alreadycastratedfatherfor an alreadysplit subject), as an
irremediablysplit subject, castratedin Bataille, whereasLacan's subject is "thetized"
from loss and from the renunciationof a "full"image.
Also, it is illusive, forBataille-and he did readthe earlyworksof Lacan-to restore
paternalfunction, to distinguish a symbolic father from the real father, irremediably
castratedandat the verysourceof this so-calledunsymbolizablecharacterof a subjectnot
already obsessed (contraryto the Lacan of "Encore,"for example) by collection and
andidentitywoulddependnotnecessarily
possession.Thisimpliesthatsexual"maturity"
on the recognitionof the symbolic (secondaryprocess)butratheron the omnipresenceof
what correspondsto Lacan's imaginary.
Castrationis radicallydifferentlyperceived, since, for Bataille, the split between
castratedsubjectand "virility"is not inconsistent.This to say thatvirility, in Bataille, is
distinguishedfrom a possessive position (havingthe phallus);andthe biological traitof
"havinga penis" does not account for the dissociation of "virility"from a position of
authority.This position, then, contributesto the split of the subjectthroughan already
castrated,split, and dispossessed subject
This virility is of the order of a confrontationbetween subject and Law. Consequently, humanityis thus the impossibility of being . . . complete. We arrive here at
somethingcentralin Bataille, the omnipresenceof the sacredin a "guilty writing"that
expiates (expiare: to project piety outside) its will of transgressionby projecting its
unproductiveproductoutwardonto the intolerableachievementof History.
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Such considerationsof the subject and the meaning of History have other consequences,namelyto affirmthatthis "guiltywriting"in Bataillehas a determinantfunction
in definingthe Law andthatthe Law does not define castrationbutis alreadydetermined
by his conception of castration(where his will to reiteratethe experience of a failed
castrationconditionsthe exercise of the text as so many "rencontresmanqu6es"with the
father)as an impossibility.Moreover,the Law itself seems to be guilty in Bataille; it is
determinedby a castrationthatdefines sexuality (andpleasure)and even the pleasureof
transgression(sadisticmetaphor)wherea subjectloses himself (masochisticmetaphor),
dispossesses himself, and renews the experienceof pleasurethroughguilt.
Yet we mustalso understandthatif guiltbringsbackprohibition,thelatterconditions
all of the dynamicsof the Law andof the pleasureof transgression.Thus,this "transgressive law" suspends the usual definition of the Law: the desire to be guilty would even
constitute,ultimately,a modalityof the imperativeof desireanda supplementarymotive
forthe suspensionof theLaw. Culpabilitywouldbe the "thetic"momentof consciousness
of the inefficiency of theLaw, themomentwherethesubject"escapes"fromhimself, that
is to say the very foundationof the Batailliansubject,the "ipsic"subject very close to
Lacan's Aphanisis.

FeminineImagos
The figure of "Woman,"as much in Bataille as in Lacan, is the majorexperience, the
invisible significant,even the "unsignifying."Butit does notevolve accordingto the same
referencesanddoes not answerto the same systematicrequirements.In Lacan,this figure
began evolving underhis investigationsof the Papinsisters, whereasin Bataille it is the
fatherthatrevealsthe sexuatedbody of a the mother.On the one hand,women's madness
is meticulouslyscrutinizedby the eye of a psychiatrist,andon the otherhand,a child digs
into the obscene vision of a ravagingand destructivesexuality enjoinedby a blind and
impotentfather.
Lacan later evolves towardthe establishment-in this he is Freudian-of the allpowerfulsymbolic, whereasBatailledisplacesthe father'sfiguretowardthe mother's,a
powerful,preoedipalmother.Womensettlein desireas a Law whichcomes to replacethe
fatherhimself, but stays underthe father's Law. This would explain both the relative
obliterationof the fatherin Bataille's novels and the virtualor effective homosexuality
of feminineimagos withinthese novels. LacanandBataillefind each otheragainlateron,
after a long roundaboutaroundthe symbolic, in Lacan's beautifulhomage to Bataille,
"Encore":"TheWoman"("LaFemme,"he says) as "not-all"("pas-toute"),escapes in
partcastrationand the Law. She is powerfulin her lack, because the Law cannotreflect
its lack. So Bataillecarriedbackto the motherthe fallen powerof the father22
in the name
of a will to subversionacting as the Law, whereasLacanmade of this powerfulnessof
women ("TheWoman")a consequenceof the inadequationof the Law to reflect them.
However, both agree on something:the horrorof this "irreference"thatconstitutes
women's sexuality, the horrifyinggap of the feminine which psychoanalysis called,
unsurprisingly,the "darkcontinent.""Jesuis DIEU,"said MadameEdwarda[OC 3: 21]:
supplementof pleasure, a thesis that Lacan probablyowes to this story of Bataille, a
supplement also to "irreference"in Lacan and sovereignty in Bataille which may
generallyexplain the inefficacy of the psychoanalyticaltheorizationof women, which
22. In Bataille, thisfall makesfor the powerfulnessand endows women with self-negative
attributes, "likethefather." Is Bataille reconfiguringthe Law in new termsor just reestablishing
thesamepatriarchallaw? Theansweris complex(like eachfigure in Bataille's literature)and calls
for a review of what I said in the introductionabout communicationand difference.

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Bataille conjugatesat the originof pleasure.Bataille associatedpleasurewith horror.In

other words, and this is well known, Lacan probably theorized a great part of his
reflectionson women while referringto Bataille's thoughtand narratives,andespecially
to the story of MadameEdwarda.
Lacan shows that this "powerfulness"remains impervious to the Law, whereas
Bataille associates the horrifyingpleasure of this "irreference"to an experience that
transcendsand "short-circuits"the Law. Where Bataille experimentswith loss, Lacan
experimentswith the inefficiency of the Law. In Bataille,the horrorlinked to the vision
of the "decimated"organinscribesthe feminine ("elles")and gives him wings ("ailes")
("elles/ailes")precisely where this vision in Lacan would confirm castrationand the
powerfulnessof the symbolic, not sovereignty.
The differences, however, lead to something in common, again. This model in
Bataille does not just configuratethe same Law differently,that is to say, that infinite
subversion(imaginary,primitiverivalry,and so on) thatis staged aroundand across the
mother'sbody, supportingtheuse of herbodyas a narcissisticfightingground,autarchic,
but above all self-mutilating.This startsto look like Lacan's "mathems"in which he
shows theconnectionbetweentheimaginary("a")andthesymbolic("A")."TheWoman"
becomes a lever by and throughwhich men think they can reach the absolute. In this
commonway of thinkingandacting,women stay "TheWoman":it "mergesthe bed with
paradise,"and woman with God. God is finally not thatmuch of a woman, since S/He
reinstatesthe efficiency of the Law (Lacan) and the will to subvertit again and again
(Bataille).
When MadameEdwardasays, "Jesuis DIEU,"for Bataille this amountsto saying
that she has from the sacredwhat God has not, what God cannotknow because he will
never be a prostituteand is obliged to comply with the logic of the client: "DIEU s'il
'savait' seraitun porc"[OC 3: 30-31], says the narratorin MadameEdwarda,answering
like the priest Madame Edwardasees in him. Madame Edwardapossesses from the
sacred, in the scandalousopening of her genital lips, what God could not accomplish.
Divine failure?An incapacityto integratethis "unsignifiable?"This is also what Lacan
retainsfrom thatstory:"Godis a b... Termwhereculminatesthe process by which the
signifierhas unleasheditself intothereal,aftertheriftin theName-of-the-Fatherhas been
revealed-that is to say, of the signifierwhich in the Other,as locus of the signifier,is the
signifier of the Otheras locus of the law."23
This failure,in my opinion,is not so much,in bothBatailleandLacan,thatof the Law
as of convergentaporiasof masculinediscoursedependenton a desire ("manquea &tre")
which cannottestify to whatit is not and has not. Here, God looks like a man tied to the
aporiasof his own law. A discoursethatwants to surroundthe "unsignifiable,"wishing
perhapsto rebuilditself with whatit misses, whatit fails. On the one hand,the example
of Madame Edwardareveals to Lacan and Bataille not only the failure of a will to
subversionof the Law (Bataille) but also, on the otherhand,the impossibilityto testify
to the "other"side (Lacan):an aporiaof masculinethoughttryingto save itself in lending
to "TheWoman"a privilegeof which he feigns not to use all the advantagesexclusively.
"Itwould be of thatnonaccessibilityto the 'real'thatLacantalksaboutwhen he says
that there is no sexual relation.This is the impossible relationwe read in Bataille."24 It
comes as no surprisethenthatBataille'ssubjectssatisfythemselvessymbolicallyandthat
23. My translationof the original French: "Dieuest unep. . . Termeoi culminele processus
par quoi le signifiant s'est 'dchaine' dans le reel, apres que la faillite fut ouverte du nom-duPere,-c'est-'-dire du signifiantquidans l'Autre,en tantque lieu du signifiant,est le signiflantde
l'Autreen tant que lieu de la loi" [Lacan 583].
24. My translationof the original French: "Ceserait de cette non-accessibiliteau 'reel' que
Lacanparlerait quandil affirmequ'il n'y a pas de rapportsexuel. C'est le rapportimpossiblequi
se lit chez Bataille" [Cano-Gauthier55].

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theirreal relationto one anotherstays impossible,or betteryet, concernsthe impossible.

This greatlydiffers in Lacan,wherethe real is imbricatedin a crossingplace betweenthe
symbolic and a "rest"that always returnsbecause it cannot be grasped.In Bataille, we
must force a "meeting"with this impossiblerelationwhichfinally formsthe only reality,
a realityreleasedfrom a failuresustainedby an unproductivesacrificialwriting.Also, it
is not surprisingto see, in Bataille'sinterpretationof Lacan'stopics ("RSI"),thata subject
gains somethingof its own sacrificeandreiteratesthis productivefailure,andin so doing
creates the (impossible) relation-or rather,in Bataille's terms, a subject maintains
himself at a deadly height of the impossible.This offers a parallel,of course, with Lacan
until we considerthatthe symbolic in Bataille is not, again, an orderbut, ultimately,the
real itself, at the crossing of an imaginarytrying to subverta Law that obeys only the
dynamicof its replacement.Wherea certainspecularityis maintainedwithinthese topical
dynamicsin Lacan,Bataille sees an ambiguousrelationbetween them, the center being
an imaginaryacting both as the real and the symbolic.
If thereis a "nonrelation"("non-rapport")
in Bataille by which Lacanis inspiredin
his "Encore"seminar(1972-73), it is not defined in the same way and does not contain
the same theoreticalincidences as in Lacan's work. Bataille aims at something more
"unnameable"on the groundof absence, whereasLacan talks of a dissymmetryin the
organic or symbolic organizationof pleasure (jouissance). The impossibility of the
relationthat amountsto an idiosyncraticpleasurein Lacan cannot fit, for example, the
ontological representationof communicationin Bataille. It is not organizedaroundan
asymmetricalconsecrationof an "idiot"pleasure,as in Lacan;it is ratheras an irreconcilable, even abject, difference, acting as a lever from which the desire of a meeting
conditionsthe samedesireforloss whereindividuals,beyondtheirrespectivedifferences,
find themselves.
All this underlinesagainthe questionof sexual identity.As we saw in the introduction, we must be cautiouswhen we speak of a sexual differencein Bataille, because his
theory of communicationcan lead, in a first reading,to an "androgynous"model. This
model is also presentin the laterLacan.Boththusseem to reiteratethesameold patriarchal
model in differentways. Bataillechallengesthe Law again and again,and Lacantries to
maintainthe father'sauthority.Thatdoes not mean we have to judge modernistwriting
as an eternal fight over and across the "mother,"using alterity to confirm masculine
individuationandso on. As we also saw in the introduction,Bataillemight be considered
in an "other"way, a way thatputs on the frontlines the work of an inner difference not
necessarilyrespondingto patriarchalmodels-a questioningof a modelof textualityupon
which Bataille's critics still have to work.As long as thereis some workto do, thereis a
place for renewal and difference.
WORKSCITED
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Bataille, Georges.
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TheAbsoluteMaster. Stanford:StanfordUP, 1991.
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comme sublimation dans les r6cits de Georges Bataille." Diss. Universit de
Montreal, 1991.
Chapsal,Madeleine. "GeorgesBataille."Les ecrivains en personne. Paris:UGE, 1973.
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Gandon,Francis.Simiotique et negativiti. Paris:DidierErudition,1986.
Lacan,Jacques."Du traitementpossible de la psychose."Ecrits. Paris:Seuil, 1966.
Marmande,Francis.Georges Bataille Politique. Lyon: PUL, 1985.

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McWhorter,Ladelle. "Is There Sexual Difference in the Work of Georges Bataille?"

InternationalStudies in Philosophy27.1 (1995): 33-41.
Perniola, Mario. Georges Bataille et la pensee de la marginaliti. Paris: MeridiensAnthropos,1982.
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