Doing History with Deleuze and Guattari

Benn van den Ende, University of Western Australia

The work of 20th-century philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari is often seen as ambivalent toward the question of history (Patton, 2009 p. 33), or even antagonistic to it (Colebrook, 2009 p. 3). This is mainly due to their interpretation of time, which is a re-modelling of Bergson’s theory in which time is not a linear process and is not divisible into past, present, and future, but rather a circulation of events in a co-existing cone of the pure past (Lampert, 2006 p. 1-2). As a result of this, conducting a history of some event, in which a linear narrative is constructed seems incompatible with Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophy. However, as authors such as Colebrook (2009), Lampert (2006), Patton (2009), DeLanda (2009), and Gioli (2005) point out if we view history through a Deleuze and Guattarian lens, not only is a ‘doing history’ possible, but it can also illuminate aspects of history that are so often overlooked by traditional historical methods. This presentation seeks to put these insights to practical use by demonstrating how Deleuze and Guatarrian concepts can be useful in ‘doing history’.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 164. Theory, History, and States