The theories of some of the so-called pre-Socratic philosophers were considered by leading avant-garde artists and thinkers as fundamental elements of (as characterized by Yatromanolakis) shaping their own ontological past—elements that for them were associated with an archaic, “dark” era.

Written by an international team of prominent scholars, "Archaic Ontological Past" is the first book to explore the multifaceted influence of the pre-Socratic on the avant-garde thought and art of the second half of the twentieth century. It examines the ways in which pre-Socratic, particularly Heraclitean thought—typically mediated through, or carefully correlated with, the works of later philosophers and writers such as Berkeley, de Sade, Hegel, Engels, and Nietzsche—contributed to the extraordinarily complex politics and aesthetics of Georges Bataille, André Breton, Salvador Dalí, and André Masson.

This book focuses on significant chapters of this still unwritten history of the pre-Socratic elements of the ontological past of the European avant-garde. "Archaic Ontological Past: Pre-Socratic Philosophy and European Avant-Garde Art and Thought" navigates a new territory in the history of the avant-garde, in the history of art, and in European intellectual history.