Beyond Structuralism: The Cerisy Experience

Heretofore, much of the jargon and logic of such scientific domains as Anthropology, Linguistics, Psychoanalysis, and Sociology have been drafted into the service of certain literary critics, namely the Structuralists, who have sought, through a reordering of priorities, to shift the emphasis from the meaning (the signifig) of a given piece of literature to the actual process by which the work is engendered, (the signifiant). The Cerisy experience suggests yet another shift, whereby the process which uses science to interrogate literature is reversed, so that works such as those of Artaud and Bataille become the instruments which operate upon and contest the sciences. The title, "Vers Une R6volution Culturelle: Artaud, Bataille" (director : Philippe Sollers) is perhaps the key to the Cerisy experience: early in the colloquium, the "director" (P. Sollers), remarked that, in the discussion periods following each intervention, the "subject" of the colloquium, Artaud and Bataille, had scarcely been mentioned. This curious and seemingly accurate observation led to a calling into question of the "subject" of the colloquium: to what extent was it the "cultural revolution"(ideology)? to what extent Artaud,