Quoniam Si Voluisses Sacrificium: Parables of Impossible Bodies

Abstract

Quoniam Si Voluisses Sacrificium: Parables of Impossible Bodies explores twentieth-century French theorist Georges Bataille’s preoccupation with finding a way to resacralise existence through a form of sacrificial mysticism that excluded God and the concept of salvation. This PhD consists of both an exegesis, which investigates Bataille’s notion of sacrifice, and a collection of five short stories that reimagine historical and mythological sacrifices in present-day Australia.