Encyclopaedia Acephalica

Comprising the Critical Dictionary and Related Texts edited by Georges Bataille and the Encyclopædia Da Costa edited by Robert Lebel & Isabelle Waldberg For those who have acquired the taste for surrealist intellectual feasts, this encyclopedia is right on target: it is no less than a cornucopia of thoughts, images, and illustrations reflecting the avant-garde "anti-tradition." Three sets of texts are translated and assembled here: the first two, Critical Dictionary and Related Texts, first appeared in issues of Documents from 1929 and 1930 and primarily were edited by George Bataille; the third, Encyclopaedia Da Costa, appeared anonymously in 1947, though Alastair Brotchie's well-documented historical introduction reveals the identity of its editors (Robert Lebel and Isabelle Waldberg). Contributors to these texts were members of the London and Paris surrealist groups as well as those of the secret society Acephale: artists, writers, sociologists, and ethnologists providing their own interpretation of the meaning of daily life, art, and philosophy. This title is a very useful compendium of surrealist thinking and provides a good introduction to the many-faceted aspects of Surrealism as a movement. The ideas of Georges Bataille (1897-1962) are being increasingly recognised as offering vital insights into the whole areas of human existence, and over the last few years most of his important theoretical and fictional texts have appeared in English. Yet Bataille’s thought is complex, and his books make few concessions to the reader. The first series of texts here, however, were written for a wider audience by Bataille and his friends, in the form of a dictionary, and they provide a witty, poetic and concise introduction to his ideas.