The Role of Objects in Bataille's: Story of the Eye

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Notes

¹All quoted material from Roland Barthes (unless otherwise stated) is from his essay of 1963 ‘The Metaphor of the Eye’, which is included the Penguin edition of Story of the Eye.

²Bataille uses the terms ‘general and ‘restricted’ in discussions about his views on the economy. It should be noted that his interpretation of economics was interwoven with his studies on anthropology and sociology.

³Bataille discusses the notion of the ‘accursed share’ (la part maudite) in The Accursed Share, vol. 1, ‘Consumption’, pp. 27–71.

⁴Susan Sontag explicitly comments on the crossover between pornography and death in her essay, ‘The Pornographic Imagination’ (1967), which precedes Barthes's essay ‘The Metaphor of the Eye’ in the Penguin edition of Story of the Eye.

⁵Apart object is an expression particularly used in Kleinian analysis to refer to ‘either a bodily organ to whom the subject relates as though it exists solely to satisfy his [sic] needs, or a person whom he [sic] treats as though he (sic) he were an organ existing solely to satisfy the subject's needs’ (see Rycroft 1995: 196). In his fragmentation and dislocation of body parts, the sculptor Hans Bellmer can be seen as engaging with the theme of the part object. His workhas pertinence here, given that Bellmer illustrated one of the editions (1946) of Story of the Eye.

⁶Prior to the writing of Story of the eye, Bataille's friends had recommended that he undergo analysis. It was the ‘virulent obsessions of his writing’ as well as his tendencies towards the pathological that prompted his friends to suggest that he seek treatment for his failing mental health. It was during this period of analysis, under the supervision of Dr Adrien Borel, that Bataille wrote Story of the Eye (Surya 2002: 96).

⁷Free association is a technique of psychoanalysis in which the patient is encouraged to relate to the analyst all thoughts, feelings and images that come to mind. It is meant to be non-directive, unregulated and uncensored thus enabling the patient to communicate freely. See Colman (2003: 288).

⁸A year before writing Story of the Eye, Bataille had written a book entitled W.C., which he described as being ‘a rather crazy piece of writing’. The manuscript of W. C. was burnt, which is why Story of the Eye is generally accepted as being his first novel (quoted in Bataille 1982: 72).