Georges Bataille [with Raymond Queneau], “La critique des fondements de la dialectique hégélienne,” Œuvres complètes, vol. I, ed. Denis Hollier (Paris: Gallimard, 1970), 277-90; originally published in La critique sociale 5 (Mar 1932): 209-14.

English translation: “The Critique of the Foundations of the Hegelian Dialectic,” trans. Allan Stoekl, Visions of Excess, ed. Allan Stoekl (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1985), 105-15.

1. “La critique” was published originally in La critique sociale (1931-34), edited by Boris Souvarine, who also headed the anti-Stalinist group “Cercle communiste démocratique.”

2. “La critique” was republished in Études hegeliennes

3. Denis Hollier, in his notes to “Le critique” in the Œuvres complètes, reports that a section of Bataille’s manuscript (which Hollier marks in brackets) is written in the hand of Raymond Queneau, who Hollier regards as the author.

4. Hollier reports also that Bataille’s manuscript contains an erased original title, “Vers une nouvelle critique positive de la dialectique hégélienne” (“Toward a New Positive Critique of the Hegelian Dialectic”).

Boris Souvarine and Colette Peignot (Laure)