Deleuze and Guattari: Selected Writings

Description

Representing a sustained engagement with the thought of Deleuze and Guattari, covering more than two decades and on a wide range of topics, from aesthetics and literature to capitalism and Marxism, Kenneth Surin takes politics as the thematic thread to this collection. Deleuze and Guattari: Selected Writings tackles both central political issues, such as the State, globalization, and the citizen, as well as the political qualities of topics generally considered outside this realm, such as the animal, the image, and the literary. Surins pursues theoretical interventions inspired by Deleuze and Guattari's scholarship in relation to Marxism and specifically materialism and notions of political solidarity, which they did not engage with extensively or explicitly themselves, but which extend their critique along new lines of flight. This book demonstrates the breadth and lasting relevance of Deleuze's and Guattari's legacy by tracing the affinities between Deleuze and both Marxist sociologist, Antonio Negri, and Raymond Williams, one of the founders of cultural studies as a discipline.

Kenneth Surin is Professor of Literature and Professor of Religion and Critical Theory at Duke University, USA. In addition to books and articles in theology and the philosophy of religion, he has published articles on political economy, political philosophy, French and German philosophy, the philosophy of art, the philosophy of education, sports and philosophy, the philosophy of literature, and cultural anthropology. His is the author of Freedom Not Yet: Liberation and the Next World Order (2009).

These engaging and erudite essays include telescopic overviews of Deleuze and Guattari's philosophy alongside microscopic analyses of key concepts. They open up new perspectives by staging encounters with unlikely interlocutors such as Mao Zedong, Raymond Williams and Donald Davidson. Altogether, they are an invaluable resource for anyone interested in Deleuzean thought. -- Paul Patton, Scientia Professor, University of New South Wales, Australia Kenneth Surin is rightly esteemed as a reader of Deleuze, but these essays - on an impressive range of topics, from ontology to aesthetics and politics - go beyond explication and develop Surin's own independent positions. Yet one also learns much about Deleuze here, precisely from the attempt to go beyond. -- John Protevi, Phyllis M Taylor Professor of French Studies and Professor of Philosophy, Louisiana State University, USA Kenneth Surin's book is a thrilling journey through Deleuze and Guattari's vertiginous thought. Political philosophy sheds its tether to state and citizen, to be pitched anew on moving and moveable ground. Through a wild array of concepts and empirical themes, Surin gives us politics as the posing of problems, the creation of worlds, and the rush of events. * Nicholas Thoburn, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, University of Manchester, UK *