Spitting Images in Montaigne and Bataille: For a Heterological Counterhistory of Sovereignty

In response to Walter Benjamin's caveat that every image of the past not recognized by the present as one of its own concerns threatens to disappear irretrievably, this essay examines images of spitting in the work of Michel de Montaigne and Georges Bataille. By resisting insertion within codified cycles of exchange-especially those of institutionalized violence-their images exemplify a defiance to servitude that can be generalized to a theory of sovereignty. An archaeological inventory indicates possibilities provided by the montage of images for the construction of a heterological counterhistory, where spit and spitting challenge the dominance of spirit in Western culture.