''Inner Experience'' (french: L'expérience intérieure) is a 1943 book by the French intellectual

Georges Bataille Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille (; ; 10 September 1897 – 9 July 1962) was a French philosopher and intellectual working in philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels, ...

. His first lengthy philosophical treatise, it was followed by ''Guilty'' (1944) and ''On Nietzsche'' (1945). Together, the three works constitute Bataille's ''Summa Atheologica'', in which he explores the experience of excess, expressed in forms such as laughter, tears, eroticism, death, sacrifice and poetry.

Summary

Bataille discusses "inner experience", which he defines as states usually considered forms of mystical experience, including ecstasy and rapture.

Reception

''Inner Experience'' received a negative reception from several authors due to having been published during the Second World War. Bataille was criticized for this privately by Jules Monnerot, and publicly by Patrick Waldberg.

Boris Souvarine Boris Souvarine (1 November 1895 – 1 November 1984), also known as Varine, was a French Marxist, communist activist, essayist and journalist. A founding member of the French Communist Party, Souvarine is noted for being the only non-Russian com ...

regarded its publication as a sign of Bataille's acceptance of the occupation of France. Bataille was attacked by

surrealists Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

in a pamphlet entitled ''Nom de Dieu''. The surrealists considered Bataille an idealist. The philosopher Gabriel Marcel criticized the work from a Christian perspective.

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{Authority control 1943 non-fiction books Aesthetics books Éditions Gallimard books French non-fiction books Works by Georges Bataille fr:L'Expérience intérieure it:L'esperienza interiore