Review article

"October": An Examination of Heterological Posits

Bojana Matejić

Abstract

The aim of this text is to explore the anti-essentialist orientation of the motif of heterology positing in the theoretical, post-Marxist discourse of the American journal October, dedicated to the contemporary theory and politics of art, art criticism, and the (visual) arts. By applying and interpreting the terminological apparatus of Georges Bataille (1897-1962), directed at a Marxistmaterialist analysis of the theoretical implications of heterology, this text aims at offering a critique of hermeneutical power, of the hegemonic, normative, and Western modernism and postmodernism. The leading hypothesis is that the motif of positing of Bataille’s (anti-)philosophical terminological framework in the October project can be traced back to the dispositive of a critique of Marxistmaterialist idealism. The writing of a new, Western and hybrid art history can thus be defined and determined by a (new) utopian historical heterology.

Keywords

heterology; transgression; the other; Bataille; October; materialism

Hrčak ID:

185599

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/185599

Publication date:

1.7.2014.

Article data in other languages: croatian

Visits: 817 *