Bodily fluids and formless bodies: Bataille reads Küçük İskender

Abstract

This study discusses the works of Georges Bataille and Küçük İskender by comparing the ways these two writers use “bodily fluids” as a subversive tool. A parallel reading of some of the major works of these writers demonstrates that the imagery of bodily fluids is a recurrent motif for both of them. This common imagery reveals similar strategies of resistance for Bataille and Ġskender, and in the course of this study, the possibilities and limitations of these strategies will constitute the focal point. Through these strategies of resistance, Bataille and Ġskender imagine an alternative order that is based on chaotic/anarchistic characteristics of fluids. In their models, fluids replace the realm of language which they perceive as the perpetuator of hierarchical power structures. In order to eliminate the power asymmetry that language solidifies, they suggest a “fluid communication” that establishes new methods of connecting different bodies. That kind of a communication, which uses the entire bodily repertoire without excluding the abject, relies on a horizontal principle instead of the vertical/hierarchical principle of language mechanisms. Contemplating on the possibility of such a non-discursive/bodily communication leads us to question our corporeality and inspires us to find new techniques of “bonding” with others. As a result, such an analysis of the two writers triggers many questions regarding contemporary theories of body politics and their relation to the realm of language.