The movement of the whole and the stationary earth
Ecological and planetary thinking in Georges Bataille
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2176492 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jon Auring Grimm (0009-0004-6484-6109, Aarhus University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 1-2 |
| Pages | 4-21 |
| Publication date | 2025-01-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal for Cultural Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1479-7585 • E-ISSN: 1740-1666 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/14797585.2024.2408329 |
| OpenAlex | W4402994536 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 9 |
We have become estranged from the cosmic movements, according to Bataille. We are confined by the error linked to the representation of ‘the stationary earth’. We have negated the immersive immanence of the whole and made nature into a fixed world of tools and things. How then do we recognise ourselves as part of the ‘rapture of the heavens’? Bataille urges us to consider life as a solar phenomenon, the free play of solar energy on the earth. This paper argues how Bataille’s cosmic vision anticipates both planetary and ecological thinking. This entails a base materialism of difference based on a radical Nietzschean and Heraclitean theory of becoming and flux. This thought is developed along Bataillean concepts such as the movement of the whole, the labyrinthine, and compound beings, ipseity, as well as the concept of a communifying movement. This materialism paired with Vladimir Vernadsky’s biosphere lays the foundation for the laws of the general economy, which also constitutes an economy inclusive of a general ecology: a tragic vision of Gaia and Dionysos. Finally, poetry is considered, as a way we might reconnect with the universe and stimulate ecological imagination
Aesthetics · Art · Astrobiology · Astronomy · Biology · Earth (classical element · Geography · Movement (music · Physics · Philosophical and Theoretical Analysis · Ecology
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |