Who's Afraid of Deleuze and Guattari?

Description

Deleuze and Guattari's landmark philosophical project, Capitalism and Schizophrenia, has been hailed as a 'highly original and sensational' major philosophical work. The collaboration of two of the most remarkable and influential minds of the twentieth century, it is a project that still sets the terms of contemporary philosophical debate. It provides a radical and compelling analysis of social and cultural phenomena, offering fresh alternatives for thinking about history, society, capitalism and culture. In Who's Afraid of Deleuze and Guattari?, Gregg Lambert revisits this seminal work and re-evaluates Deleuze and Guattari's legacy in philosophy, literary criticism and cultural studies since the early 1980s. Lambert offers the first detailed analysis of the reception of the Capitalism and Schizophrenia project by such key figures as Jameson, Zizek, Badiou, Hardt, Negri and Agamben. He argues that the project has suffered from being underappreciated and too hastily dismissed on the one hand and, on the other, too quickly assimilated to the objectives of other desires such as multiculturalism or American identity politics. In the light of the limitations of this reception-history, Lambert offers a fresh evaluation of the project and its influences that promise to challenge the ways in which Deleuze and Guattari's controversial and remarkable project has been received. Divided into four key sections, Aesthetics, Psychoanalysis, Politics and Power, Who's Afraid of Deleuze and Guattari? offers a fresh, witty and intelligent analysis of this major philosophical project.

Gregg Lambert is Dean's Professor of the Humanities at Syracuse University, New York, USA.

'Gregg Lambert has written a quite excellent book on Deleuze and Guattari. It provides a series of fascinating and highly instructive insights into their critical engagement with Marxism and psychoanalysis and shows the continuing relevance of their critique. Along the way Lambert offers valuable insights into Deleuze's relation to figures such as Heidegger and Whitehead and indicates the importance of Deleuze's early essay on instincts and institutions for a full appreciation of his remarkable intellectual trajectory. The sprightliness of the book is testimony to the fact that Deleuze is the most original and innovative philosopher of our times, a thinker who sought to be equal to philosophical events. One can only applaud Lambert's effort to be equal to Deleuze's event.' -- Keith Ansell-Pearson, Professor of Philosophy, University of Warwick 'Polemical, erudite and incisive, Gregg Lambert's latest book provides a major re-evaluation of the significance of Deleuze and Guattari's work for literature, psychoanalysis and politics. Lambert engages Jameson, Zizek, Hardt and Negri with an intimate understanding of Deleuze and Guattari's concepts. This is a fine piece of work.' -- Philip Goodchild, Associate Professor, Religious Studies, University of Nottingham Praise for The Non-Philosophy of Gilles Deleuze (Gregg Lambert): 'A smart, fast, witty book which surveys Deleuze's philosophy with an intellectual agility, a sparkling intelligence, and an effortless command of film, post-Cartesian philosophy, psychoanalysis and literature in several languages.' Jean Michel Rabate, University of Pennsylvania 'Full of thoughtful, at times brilliant reflections on the current state of theory and its relation to the world.' Dorothea Olkowski, University of Colorado Praise for Anti-Oedipus (Deleuze and Guattari): '... a rare and remarkable book, which offers us a new metaphysics' TLS Praise for A Thousand Plateaus (Deleuze and Guattari): 'A major philosophical work by perhaps the most brilliant philosophical mind at work in France today.' Frederick Jameson 'Highly original and sensational.' Hayden White * Blurb from reviewer *