On the 100th anniversary of Gilles Deleuze’s birth, this special issue focuses on two key concepts in his process philosophy: time and becoming. Deleuze’s multifaceted conception of time, which he develops along the lines of difference and repetition, as well as the various modes of becoming, which he addresses particularly in his works co-authored with Félix Guattari, combine metaphysics, aesthetics, ethics, and political-social issues. The contributions in this issue demonstrate the enduring vitality of this thinking and seek to update it in response to our present. They question conceptions of progress, evolution, otherness, and postcolonial becoming, as well as the development of new image types in the convergence of film and other audiovisual media.
Inhalt
Schwerpunkt
Marc Rölli Abstract In contemporary discourses of politically engaged aesthetics, the concept of becoming- other is omnipresent. Félix Guattari and Gilles Deleuze first developed it in A Thousand Plateaus (1980). From there, it was further explored in the arts and in the field of cultural studies. It is associated with different conceptual variants of becoming: from becoming-imperceptible to becoming-minoritarian and becoming-animal to becoming-revolutionary. Its background lies in Deleuze’s philosophy of time, in particular his theory of repetition – a theme that is taken up again in the wider context of ontological questions that have recently been raised in the movement of New Materialism. It also addresses lines of flight and zones of incommunicability that subvert the power relations of the reticular logics of control societies. And finally, in becoming-other, the possibly un / timely situatedness in the present can be conceptualized.
Michaela Ott Abstract Based on Gilles Deleuze’s interpretation of the Scotist »univocity of being«, this article examines its consequences for the conceptions of becoming and personhood. By revisiting the writings of various phases of thought, including those written in co-authorship with Claire Parnet and Félix Guattari, the desire for becoming- other of this philosophy itself is reconstructed in changing terms from a preindividual quasi-foundation via processes of de-individuation to the becoming impersonal or ahuman of thought and events. This article also examines why, despite the insistence on processes of becoming minoritarian, no attention is paid to the increasingly discriminatory thematization of being black in the French population from the 1960s onwards. Finally, an extension of the film-analytical dividual suggests a concept of dividuation that is not simply related to personhood.
Craig Lundy Abstract The aim of this article is to provide a full explication of Gilles Deleuze’s early engagement with Henri Bergson. Deleuze is one of the most important readers of Bergson, and Bergson is one of the most significant influences on Deleuze’s work, but the appreciation of their encounter often revolves around Deleuze’s book on Bergson. By focusing on Deleuze’s earlier writings on Bergson, without recourse to his later writings, it is hoped that an improved understanding can be gained of the genesis of Deleuze’s philosophy, and his Bergsonism in particular. After outlining the historical and philosophical context of Deleuze’s early engagements with Bergson, the majority of this article will explore the details of Deleuze’s first publications on Bergson. As we will see, the nature of being / becoming and time are integral elements of Deleuze’s early Bergson, contouring his future work, which I will touch on in the concluding section of the article.
Daniela Voss Abstract In their co-authored book A Thousand Plateaus (1980), Deleuze and Guattari develop a theory of evolution that comprises inorganic, organic and so-called alloplastic strata. This ›geological model of strata‹ does not imply progress toward perfection, excluding any active role for an evolutionary trend toward higher forms of organisation or complexity in favour of non-teleological creative and experimental becomings. On this view, the only positive sources for evolution are the contingent processes of deterritorialisation and decoding that occur wherever there are processes of territorialisation and coding. This essay offers an interpretation of Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of becoming, focusing on the co-evolution of living beings and their milieus as well as forms of symbioses between heterogeneous living beings. This set of concepts makes it possible to combine developmental and evolutionary change, with ontogenesis and phylogenesis seen as parameters of a univocal becoming.
Oliver Fahle Abstract This text explores various positions and theories that develop Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy of cinema. The focus is on films made from the 1990s onwards, as they extend beyond the period covered by Deleuze’s film books, which ranged from the beginning of film history to the 1980s. The focus is on post-cinema, i.e., the formation of an aesthetics and philosophy of film under digital conditions, in which cinema develops close aesthetic relationships with other media, particularly audiovisual formats. In doing so, philosophical ideas that Deleuze did not fully develop are also explored further, particularly the tension between the action-image and the time-image; the temporal image and its relationship to the brain (neuroimage); and the affect and the affect-image.
Experiment
Veronika Reichl Abstract From 2016 to 2022, I conducted 40 interviews with academic philosophers (ranging from 20-year-old students to 60-year-old professors) about their reading habits. These confidential, often lengthy conversations form the basis for a book of stories about reading philosophy. These conversations and the resulting stories dealt with aesthetic and emotional experiences while reading: moments of understanding and not understanding, searching for meaning, the sensation of significance, initiation into a field, conquering texts, shame, failure, suspicion of texts, wrestling with meaning, dealing with academia, career and life crises, long-standing relationships with texts, and how reading changes people.
Buchbesprechung
Matthias Jung Evgenia Sonnabend
