Abstract: This article aims to analyze George Bataille’s concept of literature by comparing it with Jean-Paul Sartre’s opposite view of committed literature. Sartre considered commitment to the world as core of literature, requiring literature to serve society, convey meaning, and advance the progress of society and history. In response to Sartre’s view, Bataille argued that literature is useless. He recognized literature as a sovereign activity of expenditure and argued that it should only present the unknown of the world, which sheds light on unemployed negativity as the core of literature. In this sense, Bataille’s concept is a reflection on modernity. Literature, as a resistant and negative force against society and history, shows a characteristic of uselessness. Yet, this uselessness is not a negation of everything. In contrast, it is a way to contemplate human existence at a more profound level, in order to liberate human subjectivity from alienation.

Key words: committed literature, sovereignty, expenditure, the unknown, unemployed negativity, subjectivity