H3, Hétérologies. Pour une dé-neutralisation de la critique littéraire et artistique. Presses Universitaires de Perpignan, Collection Études, 2006.
Rugby as Heterological Musement
Rugby, mass-phenomenon of unspeakable attraction, whose primary condition evokes a pure non-utilitarian experience of collective superfluous expenditure, or, as Georges Bataille would say, of non-utilitarian dépense. Its principles and historical-cultural conditions of emergence could be explored as well as its actual development as one of the main current “European sport spectacles”. Some philosophical, anthropological and sociological works could be quoted in order to interpret its own imaginary realm as a ritual performance, as heroism and defeat in combat, as tribal cooperation and team ethics, as regional identity, as affective bonding, as homeopathy of violence, as ovalin sacrality, incantatory practice, etcetera.
Like any piece of art, contemporary social phenomena as Rugby response to particular historical contexts as well as political, economic and affective needs. Nevertheless, the innovative approach of “The Perpignan School of Heterology” proposes an inversion of the traditional critical method on Art: study first contemporary artistic and social phenomena and then see what they can tell us about art and society in previous periods and as a Gestalt.
In this direction, the work of Georges Bataille can be used as an interpretative paradigm for the mass spectacle of Rugby.
As in contemporary art where lacks internal coherence, rugby match could be interpreted as a concentric receptacle where antagonistic forces overflows the rigid rules of the “traditional and boring aesthetic, social and sportive game”.
