The Shadow of Dionysus: A Contribution to the Sociology of the Orgy

Maffesoli presents a powerful argument for understanding everyday life by examining the passional logic that animates the social body. He asserts that the circulation of sexuality, as much as the circulation of goods and services or language, is a structural component of sociality. By examining the dionysian adventure (passion, bonds of shared emotion, communal feeling), he redefines the problems of sociality and the strong hedonistic ethics present in contemporary daily life.