Introduction: The Avant-Garde Premodern -- 1. Para-Thomism: Bataille at Rheims -- 2. Apocalypse and Archaeophilia: Lacan's Middle Ages and the Ethics of History -- 3. Indigeneity: Panofsky, Bourdieu, and the Archaeology of the Habitus -- 4. Gothic Invention: Liturgy, History, Of Grammatology -- 5. The Four Senses of Roland Barthes -- Epilogue -- Appendix I: "Medieval French Literature, Chivalric Morals, and Passion" / Georges Bataille ; translated by Laurence Petit -- Appendix II: Postface to Erwin Panofsky, Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism / Pierre Bourdieu ; translated by Laurence Petit.