Between expenditure and excess: a review of Georges Bataille’s the accursed share

Abstract

This review aims to critically expose the book The Accursed Share by Georges Bataille (1897-1962) according to the 2016 edition of Autêntica Editora. In this version, we have the 1949 text The Accursed Share preceded by the 1933 article The Notion of Expenditure. In these two works, Bataille criticizes the way in which the economy is traditionally conceived. According to the author, the center of the economy, as well as nature and human beings, is not production, but expenditure, uselessness. To defend this, in the 1933 text Bataille will rely on the social expenditure witnessed in luxuries and waste, in works of art, in sacrifices and in games; therefore, the institution of primitive exchanges represented by the North American Indian potlatch is of paramount importance for his argument. In the 1949 book the social issue remains, however, Bataille will propose that expenditure is found, firstly, in nature, symbolized by the sun, which gives without receiving, and based on this observation he will begin an analysis of several historical societies and the way which they dealt with the excedent up to the current times. Our objective in this review is to critically present the arguments raised by Bataille, as well as his theoretical presuppositions and possibilities for updating his theory.