A Maximal Understanding of Sacrifice: Bataille, Richard Wagner, Pilgrimage and the Bayreuth Festival
This paper calls for a broad conception of sacrifice to be developed as a resource for cultural sociology. It argues the term was framed too narrowly in the classical work of Hubert and Mauss. The later approach of Bataille permits a maximal understanding of sacrifice as non-utilitarian expenditures...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-01-01
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| Series: | Religions |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/1/48 |
| _version_ | 1797413015875747840 |
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| author | Philip Smith Florian Stoll |
| author_facet | Philip Smith Florian Stoll |
| author_sort | Philip Smith |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper calls for a broad conception of sacrifice to be developed as a resource for cultural sociology. It argues the term was framed too narrowly in the classical work of Hubert and Mauss. The later approach of Bataille permits a maximal understanding of sacrifice as non-utilitarian expenditures of money, energy, passion and effort directed towards the experience of transcendence. From this perspective, pilgrimage can be understood as a specific modality of sacrificial activity. This paper applies this understanding of sacrifice and pilgrimage to the annual Bayreuth “Wagner” Festival in Germany. Drawing on a multi-year mixed-methods study involving ethnography, semi-structured interviews and historical research, the article traces sacrificial expenditures at the level of individual festival attendees. These include financial costs, arduous travel, dedicated research of the artworks, and disciplines of the body. Some are lucky enough to experience transcendence in the form of deep emotional experience, and a sense of contact with sacred spaces and forces. Our study is intended as an exemplary paradigm case that can be drawn upon analogically by scholars. We suggest that other aspects of social experience, including many that are more ‘everyday’, can be understood through a maximal model of sacrifice and that a rigorous, wider comparative sociology could be developed using this tool. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T05:11:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d637d887b23546e4b61056579f946f24 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2077-1444 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T05:11:27Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Religions |
| spelling | doaj.art-d637d887b23546e4b61056579f946f242023-12-03T12:49:02ZengMDPI AGReligions2077-14442021-01-011214810.3390/rel12010048A Maximal Understanding of Sacrifice: Bataille, Richard Wagner, Pilgrimage and the Bayreuth FestivalPhilip Smith0Florian Stoll1Department of Sociology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USAResearch Center Global Dynamics (Recent Globe), Leipzig University, Strohsackpassage, Nikolaistr. 6-10, 04109 Leipzig, GermanyThis paper calls for a broad conception of sacrifice to be developed as a resource for cultural sociology. It argues the term was framed too narrowly in the classical work of Hubert and Mauss. The later approach of Bataille permits a maximal understanding of sacrifice as non-utilitarian expenditures of money, energy, passion and effort directed towards the experience of transcendence. From this perspective, pilgrimage can be understood as a specific modality of sacrificial activity. This paper applies this understanding of sacrifice and pilgrimage to the annual Bayreuth “Wagner” Festival in Germany. Drawing on a multi-year mixed-methods study involving ethnography, semi-structured interviews and historical research, the article traces sacrificial expenditures at the level of individual festival attendees. These include financial costs, arduous travel, dedicated research of the artworks, and disciplines of the body. Some are lucky enough to experience transcendence in the form of deep emotional experience, and a sense of contact with sacred spaces and forces. Our study is intended as an exemplary paradigm case that can be drawn upon analogically by scholars. We suggest that other aspects of social experience, including many that are more ‘everyday’, can be understood through a maximal model of sacrifice and that a rigorous, wider comparative sociology could be developed using this tool.https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/1/48sacrificepilgrimagesacredfestivalsWagnerBayreuth |
| spellingShingle | Philip Smith Florian Stoll A Maximal Understanding of Sacrifice: Bataille, Richard Wagner, Pilgrimage and the Bayreuth Festival Religions sacrifice pilgrimage sacred festivals Wagner Bayreuth |
| title | A Maximal Understanding of Sacrifice: Bataille, Richard Wagner, Pilgrimage and the Bayreuth Festival |
| title_full | A Maximal Understanding of Sacrifice: Bataille, Richard Wagner, Pilgrimage and the Bayreuth Festival |
| title_fullStr | A Maximal Understanding of Sacrifice: Bataille, Richard Wagner, Pilgrimage and the Bayreuth Festival |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Maximal Understanding of Sacrifice: Bataille, Richard Wagner, Pilgrimage and the Bayreuth Festival |
| title_short | A Maximal Understanding of Sacrifice: Bataille, Richard Wagner, Pilgrimage and the Bayreuth Festival |
| title_sort | maximal understanding of sacrifice bataille richard wagner pilgrimage and the bayreuth festival |
| topic | sacrifice pilgrimage sacred festivals Wagner Bayreuth |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/1/48 |
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