Gilles Deleuze, Postcolonial Theory, and the Philosophy of Limit

by Réda Bensmaïa

Overview

Does a philosopher have an 'identity'? What kind of 'identity' is mobilized when the work of a philosopher becomes a major reference for certain schools of thought, as in the case of Gilles Deleuze and postcolonial theory? Have the promoters of a generalized Deleuzeanism taken care their usage of his specialized work does him justice?

Few exponents of postcolonial and subaltern theories now dispute the influence that Deleuze's work exerted on the intellectuals and theorists who developed those theories. However, this book contends that postcolonial and subaltern theorists have engaged with Deleuzean thought in ways that have perhaps produced a long series of misunderstandings – for which Deleuze himself is not responsible. By engaging with recent innovations in North African culture and by examining the dissemination of Deleuze's identities across a broad range of postcolonial theory, Réda Bensmaïa shows that the 'encounter' between Deleuze and the postcolonial movement can only be understood through the idea of a 'transcendental' field, in which Deleuze and his postcolonial followers find themselves captured.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350004405
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	02/23/2017
Series:	Suspensions: Contemporary Middle Eastern and Islamicate Thought
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Réda Bensmaïa is Professor Emeritus, Formerly University Professor of French and Francophone Literature, in the Department of French Studies and the Department of Comparative Literature at Brown University, USA. He has published extensively on French and Francophone literature of the 20th century as well as on film theory and contemporary philosophy.
Réda Bensmaïa is Professor Emeritus, Formerly University Professor of French and Francophone Literature, in the Department of French Studies and the Department of Comparative Literature at Brown University, USA. He has published extensively on French and Francophone literature of the 20th century as well as on film theory and contemporary philosophy.

Table of Contents

Series Foreword
Acknowledgements
Preface: Gilles Deleuze and How to Become a Stalker in Philosophy

1. Postcolonial Haecceities: On Deleuze's Names
2. The Subject of Art: Prolegomena to a Future Deleuzian Aesthetics
3. Cinéplastique(s): Deleuze on Élie Faure and Film Theory
4. On the “Spiritual Automaton,” or Space and Time in Modern Cinema According to Gilles Deleuze
5. The Singularity of the Event: Gilles Deleuze, Paul Virilio, François Jullien
6. The Kafka-Effect: Considerations on the Limits of Interpretation in Deleuze and Guattari's Book on Kafka
7. On the Concept of 'Minor Literature': From Kafka to Kateb Yacine
8. Becoming-Animal, Becoming-Political in Rachid Boudjedra's L'Escargot Entêté

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

For many years now, Réda Bensmaïa has been an important voice in the study of Gilles Deleuze, one of the most important philosophers of the late 20th century. This volume is a remarkable experiment, bringing Deleuze's thought into that other territory which Bensmaïa has so impressively travelled, postcolonial theory. Bensmaïa shows how Deleuze's philosophical and political cartography can be used to chart paths through postcolonial theory, demonstrating that any attempt to think through the questions raised by postcolonial theory will have to take at least some of its bearings using Deleuze's writings.
John Noyes, Professor of German, University of Toronto, Canada

How to think the "postcolonial" with Deleuze? With reference to key concepts such as haecceities, audiovisuality, the event, minor literature, and becoming-animal, Réda Bensmaïa offers a series of thought-provoking answers to this dynamic question. At once rigorous and open-minded, and attuned to debates in philosophy, film theory, literature, art, and geopolitics, this book is a tribute to Deleuzean discourse at its best.
Rey Chow, Anne Firor Scott Professor of Literature, Duke University, USA

The encounter between Deleuze's thought and postcolonial theory takes place as an event of perpetual infraction. For how can one apply a body of thought predicated on a rigorous thinking of the limit? The question lies at the heart of this luminous book by a true "pilgrim" of Deleuze's thought. Bensmaïa's account of Deleuze's work as "the philosophy of limit" avoids the anxiety and bad conscience that haunt every approach to Deleuze in the expository mode. The result is an extraordinary work whose impact will be felt far beyond its own disciplinary limits.
Timothy Bewes, Professor of English, Brown University, USA

From the Publisher