Negative Ecstasies

Despite Georges Batailles acknowledged influence on major poststructuralist thinkersincluding Foucault, Derrida, Kristeva, Lacan, Baudrillard, and Barthesand his prominence in literary, cultural, and social theory, rarely has he been taken up by scholars of religion, even as issues of the sacred were central to his thinking. Bringing together established scholars and emerging voices, Negative Ecstasies engages Bataille from the perspective of religious studies and theology, forging links with feminist and queer theory, economics, secularism, psychoanalysis, fat studies, and ethics. As these essays demonstrate, Batailles work bears significance to contemporary questions in the academy and vital issues in the world. We continue to ignore him at our peril.