Le « sacré gauche » chez Georges Bataille et Hubert Aquin
C. Hoffmann
December 30, 2013 DOI: 10.31743/ql.4608 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key points | The text argues that Bataille and Aquin share a mystical experience akin to Caillois's "left sacred," reached through transgression and eroticism. For Bataille, God is absent or dead and mystical theology concerns "the unknown," making ecstasy accessible to everyone through communication; for Aquin, eroticism is a temptation that removes Christ and the "right sacred," which he treats as the absolute of human communion with the Son of God. |
Abstract
: Georges Bataille and Hubert Aquin both explore a mystical experience displaying strong similarities, related to what Roger Caillois called « left sacred », that is the impure, malefic sacred, which is accessible by transgression and corresponds to the privileged moment of unity between people. For Bataille, God is absent, even dead : Lamma sabachtani is no longer a question but an assertion in his essays. The object of his new mystical theology is not God, but « the unknown». The divine is reduced to the human, transcendence to immanence. The goal is to free the mystical experience from its religious background and to make ecstasy accessible to every-one. It is precisely by communicating that men can break their isolation and unite themselves with others. « Eroticism of bodies » and « eroticism of hearts » are two of the experiences proposed by Bataille which lead to the sacred. Hubert Aquin is also fascinated by the « left sacred », by eroticism in particular, but it represents for him a temptation which eliminates from the « right sacred » Jesus Christ and perfection He is, for Aquin, the absolute corresponding to the communion between the human being and the Son of God ; it consists in being reborn and in living in “the Christ of the Revelation”.