Time and History in Deleuze and Serres

Description

For Gilles Deleuze, time is 'out of joint'. For Michel Serres, it is 'a crumpled handkerchief'. In both of these concepts, explicit references are made to the non-linear dynamics of Chaos and Complexity theory, as well as the New Sciences. The groundbreaking work of these key thinkers has the potential to instigate a radical break from traditional existentialist theories of time and history, affording us the opportunity to view history and historical events as a complex, non-linear system of feedback-loops, couplings and interfaces. In this collection, the first to address the comparative historiographies of Deleuze and Serres, twelve leading experts - including William Connolly, Eugene Holland, Claire Colebrook and Elizabeth Grosz - examine these alternative concepts of time and history, exposing critical arguments in this important and emerging field of research.

Bernd Herzogenrath is Professor of American Studies at the University of Frankfurt, Germany.

This book definitely fills a gap in the scholarly literature. There did not yet exist a book on the resonances between the philosophies of Michel Serres and Gilles Deleuze, resonances that clearly exist and that were also confirmed by Michel Serres himself in the 1995 interview with Hari Kunzru.[1] Filling this gap, this edited volume at the same time helps to relieve the lack of extended scholarly literature on the work of Michel Serres in particular. -- Judith Wambacq * H-France Review *