Rethinking the political : the sacred, aesthetic politics, and the Colleg̀e de Sociologie / Simonetta Falasca-Zamponi.

"From 1937 to 1939, a group of French intellectuals of diverse origins and disciplines gathered under the leadership of Georges Bataille and Roger Caillois to form the Colleg̀e de Sociologie. Inspired by Durkheim's theory of the sacred as the symbolic foundation of community, and having witnessed the importance of symbolic aesthetics in the rise of fascism during the interwar years, the short-lived but profoundly innovative Colleg̀e examined the possibilities for social bonds in the modern secularized era. Rethinking the Political demonstrates that the Colleg̀e de Sociologie's quest to create a new place for the sacred in modern collective life ostensibly entailed avoiding the theorization of both aesthetics and politics. While the Colleg̀e condemned manipulation by totalitarian regimes, its understanding of community also led to a rejection of democratic and communist forms of political organization, leaving the group open to accusations of flirting with fascism. Acknowledging these political ambiguities, the author goes beyond a narrow ideological reading to reveal the Colleg̀e's important contribution to our thinking about the relationships between community formation, politics, aesthetics, and the sacred in the modern world. She expands her historical account of the members' thought, including their relationship to Surrealism, beyond the group's dissolution, and shows how the work of Claude Lefort extends, but also resolves, many of the Colleg̀e's key theoretical insights. A fascinating study of some of the twentieth-century's most daring thinkers, Rethinking the Political offers crucial insights into the contradictions at play in modern notions of community that still resonate today."--Publisher's website.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [265]-284) and index.

Introduction -- Representing the social: Eḿile Durkheim and Marcel Mauss -- Against aesthetics: the anthropology of objects -- The avant-garde meets politics -- From contre-attaque to the colleg̀e: a headless interlude -- At the colleg̀e: the social in excess -- Politics at the colleg̀e -- Rethinking the political -- Conclusions.