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| Rembrandt, The State Bed (Le lit à la française) (1646, print in etching and drypoint) |
Thank you very much for your presence and participation in this week's most challenging of classes. Despite our shared shock, sorrow and grief upon learning of Martin's passing, we nonetheless managed to make considerable headway in our ongoing exploration of human desire and sexuality.
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| The Sacrifice of Iphigenia (fresco, 1st century, Pompeii, Naples) |
Your responses to the blood bot's latest tweet have demonstrated your remarkably impressive ability to creatively and cogently apply Bataille's concepts of eroticism, the sacred and (dis-)continuity of being to François Perrier's seventeenth century depiction of Iphigenia's sacrifice.
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| François Perrier, The Sacrifice of Iphigenia (oil on canvas, 1632-33) |
I hope my review of Durkheim's comprehension of religion and the dualism between the sacred and the profane provided some context to Bataille's views on the complexly intertwined relations between eroticism, the sacred, taboo and transgression.
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As I mentioned in class, and as Bataille himself points out, transgressive acts relate to the profane world of laws and taboos in ways reminiscent of what the nineteenth century German philosopher Hegel referred to as an operation of Aufhebung (overcoming and yet preserving; surpassing and yet maintaining).
For this week's blogging assignment, I'd like you to identify and describe a religious phenomenon of your choosing (e.g. a ritual, practice, belief, object, attitude, text, prayer, clothing, gesture, behaviour, idea, dogma, doctrine, story, narrative, site, building, place, person, experience, event, etc). How might your chosen phenomenon relate to, instantiate and/or disconfirm Durkheim's classic yet contested early-twentieth century definition of religion?
As always, I you prefer, please feel free to articulate one question which arose for you in relation to this week's reading and/or lecture.
I look forward to learning from your blogs!