Deleuze
Key Contemporary Thinkers
1. Edition December 2006
200 Pages, Hardcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
This book provides a clear and concise introduction to the
philosophy of Gilles Deleuze. It analyses his key theoretical
concepts, such as difference and the body without organs, and
covers all the different areas of his thought, including
metaphysics, the history of philosophy, psychoanalysis, political
theory, the philosophy of the social sciences and aesthetics. As
the first book to offer a comprehensive analysis of Deleuze's
writings, it reveals both the internal coherence of his philosophy
and its development through a series of distinct phases.
Reidar Due offers an entirely new interpretation of Deleuze's
philosophy, centred around the notion of thought as a capacity to
form relations. These relations are embodied in nature, in language
and in the unconscious; in art, science and social practice. With
this concept of embodied thought, Deleuze challenges our most
entrenched beliefs about the self and about signs whether
linguistic or social. He develops an original theory of power and
social systems and presents a method for understanding any
signifying practice, from language and ritual to the unconscious,
including cinema, literature and painting.
Due analyses the different strands in this theoretical edifice
and shows its implications for a wide range of human sciences, from
history and psychology to political theory and cultural
studies.
II. Immanence and Subjectivity
III. Cultural Semiotics
IV. A History of the Subject
V. Social Ontology
VI. Philosophy and Art
combination of clarity and complexity, providing an account of all
the major aspects of Deleuze's philosophy and its
development. It manages to be both focused and comprehensive,
thematic and historical, and, perhaps most important, it offers a
new and highly convincing interpretation of Deleuze as a
philosopher of embodied thought."
Christina Howells, University of Oxford
"Readers new to Deleuze will find this a highly instructive and
superior introduction. Reidar Due succeeds in guiding the reader
through Deleuze's project and its attempt to transform how we
think. The book is essential reading for students and scholars in
the humanities and social sciences who are seeking new directions
for thought."
Keith Ansell Pearson, University of Warwick
