Christianity would not want a world from which violence was excluded: God, Bataille and Derrida on the sovereign logic of religious child killing

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Abstract

This article explores Georges Bataille's attempts to locate Gilles de Rais (1404–1440)—military figurehead, national hero, serial child-killer, archetype of Bluebeard—in a cultural, historical and political imaginary, and in a religious inscape. Bataille does this in his essay 'The Tragedy of Gilles de Rais', where de Rais finds his place as a remnant of the collapsing world of the feudal seigneur, a world he had outlived, with its military reforms and complex ecclesiastical politics.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)129-146
Number of pages18
JournalCultural Studies Review
Volume18
Issue number2
Publication statusPublished - 2012

Bibliographical note

Copyright the Author(s) 2012. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher

Keywords

  • Gilles de Rais
  • christianity
  • violence
  • Bataille

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