(Transgressing the dialectical materialism. Georges Bataille, low materialism and heterology)

Abstract

The article investigates the reception of Marxism in the heterological reflections of Georges Bataille. In this sense, it explores the evolution of dialectical materialism into a low materialism. The period of the thirties of the last century is specifically analyzed, especially Bataille’s production around the Documents and La critique Sociale magazines. It is in the articles published there that Bataille develops in depth his heterological conception. Some texts of the “Critical Dictionary” and the articles “Low materialism and gnosis” and “Critique of the foundations of Hegelian dialectics” are addressed to observe how Bataille receives concepts from Marx’s thought and transgresses them by going beyond the themselves. In this direction, the analysis carried out by the French thinker on key Marxist notions, such as “materialism” and “dialectics”, is explored. Here, the interpretation of Hegel becomes relevant, especially that made by Alexander Kòjeve. Certainly the Russian philosopher is also criticized by Bataille for his conception of the “end of history”. Therefore, the way in which Bataille critically tenses concepts of the Hegelian-Marxist-Kojevian ontological conceptions is observed, giving rise to the flourishing of his own ideas. Thus, in this context the notions of “low matter” and “unemployed negativity” are born, of fundamental importance in Bataille’s thought. Indeed, without the latter, heterology would be unthinkable. It is therefore concluded that Bataille’s transgression of the ontological presuppositions of the Marxist-Hegelian tradition does not constitute a metaphysics, but rather an ethics. For it is not a question of defining a reality that overcomes contradictions, but of holding up to the very height of the contradiction.