The Erotics of Excess:
Formlessness/Abjection/Horror
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Fall 2018
HUM 3158/PHOTO 3005
Tuesday, 9am-4pm
Columbus 308
Jeremy Biles, jbiles@saic.edu; Rebecca Walz, rwalz@saic.edu
ESSAY 1 INSTRUCTIONS
Instructions
Essays should be about 3 pages in length, double-spaced, with reasonable fonts and margins (e.g., Times 12-pt., 1-inch margins). Essays should be submitted to the instructor in Word format. Essays are due no later than Tuesday, October 2, 2018, 8:59am. Please title your documents after the following manner: LastName.Essay1.doc.
Be sure to integrate carefully selected and properly cited supporting quotes from Sontag’s essay in crafting your response. Footnotes should contain, at minimum: Author’s name, title of work cited, page number. This is a requirement of the assignment.
You will want to articulate a clear point in response to the prompt below, being sure to provide a focus to your essay. (You won’t be able to respond to every aspect of the prompt, so concentrate on a main point of your choosing.) In doing so, you will need to articulate the reasoning behind your position, offering evidence for why you think what you think.
Prompts
Georges Bataille claims that eroticism is “assenting to life up to the point of death.” Write an essay in which you reflect critically upon this characterization of eroticism.
Some questions to consider:
How does the phrase cited above function as a definition?
How does Bataille develop his account of eroticism in relation to such matters as:
dis/continuity, excess, pleasure, death?
How does he distinguish between “simple sexual activity” and eroticism?
What does his theory of eroticism suggest about a corresponding way of living, a practice of life? Or an art-making practice?
In writing your essays, you are welcome to consider Bataille’s essay “The Solar Anus” or other materials, including class discussions, that help you develop your points.
