Understanding Deleuze, Understanding Modernism: (Understanding Philosophy, Understanding Modernism)

Understanding Deleuze, Understanding Modernism explores the multi-faceted and formative impact of Gilles Deleuze on the development and our understanding of modernist thought in its philosophical, literary, and more broadly cultural manifestations. Gilles Deleuze himself rethought philosophical history with a series of books and essays on individual philosophers such as Kant, Spinoza, Leibniz, Nietzsche, and Bergson and authors such as Proust, Kafka, Beckett and Woolf, on the one hand, and Bacon, Messiaen, and Pollock, among others, in other arts. This volume acknowledges Deleuze's profound impact on a century of art and thought and the origin of that impact in his own understanding of modernism. Understanding Deleuze, Understanding Modernism begins by "conceptualizing" Deleuze by offering close readings of some of his most important works. The contributors offer new readings that illuminate the context of Deleuze's work, either by reading one of Deleuze's texts against or in the context of his entire body of work or by challenging Deleuze's readings of other philosophers. A central section on Deleuze and his aesthetics maps the relationships between Deleuze's thought and modernist literature. The volume's final section features an extended glossary of Deleuze's key terms, with each definition having its own expert contributor.

Table of Contents:
Abbreviations Contributors Series Preface, Understanding Philosophy, Understanding Modernism S. E. Gontarski, Paul Ardoin, and Laci Mattison Introduction, Gilles Deleuze and the Staging of Philosophy S. E. Gontarski, Florida State University, USA; Paul Ardoin, Florida State University, USA, and University of Antwerp, Belgium; and Laci Mattison, Florida State University, USA Part 1 Conceptualizing Deleuze 1 Deleuze’s Proust and Signs: The Literary Partial Object Patrick M. Bray, Ohio State University, USA 2 Life as Method: The Invention of Problems in Deleuze’s Bergsonism Wahida Khandker, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK 3 Diagrammatic Modernism: Abstraction, Immanence, and the Positions of Style Joe Hughes, University of Melbourne, Australia 4 Reading Anti-Oedipus: Literature, Schizophrenia, and Universal History Aidan Tynan, Cardiff University, UK 5 On the Flyleaves of Modernism: Deleuze and Guattari’s Kafka Jason Skeet, Cardiff University, UK 6 Intensive Multiplicities in A Thousand Plateaus Audrone Žukauskaite, Lithuanian Culture Research Institute and Vilnius University, Lithuania 7 The Movement-Image, The Time-Image, and the Paradoxes of Literary and Other Modernisms Garin Dowd, University of West London, UK 8 What Is Philosophy?, or Eternal Return S. E. Gontarski, Florida State University, USA 9 Essays Critical and Clinical: The Book as a ‘Whole’ Anthony Uhlmann, University of Western Sydney, Australia Part 2 Deleuze and Aesthetics 10 “A strange respect for the individual”: Gilles Deleuze and Hardy the Novelist John Hughes, University of Gloucestershire, UK 11 Entangled in Nature: Deleuze’s Modernism, Woolf’s Philosophy, and Spinoza’s Ethology Derek Ryan, University of Kent, UK 12 Dancing with Deleuze: Modernism and the Imperceptible Animal Carrie Rohman, Lafayette College, USA 13 Henry Miller and Deleuze’s “Strange Anglo-American Literature” Andrew Marzoni, University of Minnesota, UK 14 Schizoanalytic Modernism: The Case of Antonin Artaud Ian Buchanan, University of Wollongong, Australia 15 Deleuze’s Perspectival Theory of Modernism and the Baroque Christopher Langlois, University of Western Ontario, Toronto 16 Incorporeal Modernism Claire Colebrook, Penn State University, USA Part 3 Glossary 17 Abstract Machine Aden L. Evens, Dartmouth College, USA 18 Affect Mickey Vallee, University of Lethbridge, Canada 19 Assemblage Justin Litaker, Purdue University, USA 20 Becoming Jason Skeet, Cardiff University, UK 21 Body Without Organs Ian Buchanan, University of Wollongong, Australia 22 Desire Marco Altamirano, Louisiana State University, USA 23 Deterritorialization John Mac Kilgore, Florida State University, USA 24 Memory Nadine Boljkovac, Brown University, USA 25 Minor Literature Christopher Langlois, University of Western Ontario, Canada 26 Plane of Immanence Jon K. Shaw, Goldsmiths College, UK 27 Rhizome Eugene W. Holland, Ohio State University, USA 28 Schizoanalysis Anna Powell, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK 29 Stuttering Mickey Vallee, University of Lethbridge, Canada 30 Time-Image Nadine Boljkovac, Brown University, USA Index

About the Author :
Paul Ardoin is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Texas at San Antonio, USA. S. E. Gontarski is the Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of English at Florida State University, USA. He is the author or editor of 15 books, including Samuel Beckett: The Complete Short Prose, 1928-1989 (1996), The Theatrical Notebooks of Samuel Beckett, Volume IV: The Shorter Plays (1999), A Companion To Samuel Beckett (2010), Beckett after Beckett (ed. with Anthony Uhlmann, 2006), The Faber Companion to Samuel Beckett: A Reader's Guide to His Life, Works, and Thought (with C. J. Ackerly, 2006), The Grove Press Reader, 1951-2001 (2001), Modernism, Censorship and the Politics of Publishing (2000). Laci Mattison is Visiting Lecturer of English Literature at Florida State University, USA.

Review :
Understanding Deleuze, Understanding Modernism is a significant moment in the ongoing exploration of the relationship between Deleuze and modernism ... Although each essay focuses on a different aspect of Deleuze’s philosophy and of modernist tendencies, there are overlappings and recurring themes in them, and together they offer a coherent, yet diverse image for the reader, a thorough and compelling critical engagement with Deleuze’s modernism. I love using Deleuze, even when I do not follow him systematically. I admire the infinite productivity of his concepts, the generosity of his culture and the intelligence of his readings, all of which are magnified by this compendium with its sharp definitions, astute contextualizations and a comprehensive glossary. It has already become invaluable for me. I can recommend it to readers interested in the interfaces between literature, philosophy, art and politics. The full power of Deleuze’s mind shines here splendidly. [This] is a wonderfully accessible guide to the texts and the issues involved. The introductions to Deleuze’s major works, essays on his relation to key modernist writers, and dictionary style entries on key concepts make this an exceptionally useful resource. This book enlarges our understanding of modernism as well as our understanding of Deleuze. The immediate usefulness of this series is in the editors' tripartite structure of close reading, contextualization, and key concepts from the philosophies of modernism. The second volume on the philosophy of Deleuze collates an exceptional range of scholars on Deleuze and/or Modernism, maintaining a nice balance between well heeled names and brilliant new voices. Combining contributions from important established and emerging scholars, this carefully structured volume will no doubt prove a valuable interdisciplinary resource for Deleuzian initiates and newcomers alike. As well as demonstrating the import of Deleuze’s philosophy for understanding the concept of modernism and modernist works, the strength of this book lies in its emphasis on the extent to which Deleuze’s thought was formed by his encounters with key modernist figures from Proust and Bergson to Beckett and Woolf. If you want to learn from some of the deepest and most original work on Deleuze, Guattari and literature available today, this is the book for you. If you are currently doing advanced research on Deleuze, Guattari and literature, this collection will be a valuable resource for studies and positions in relation to which your thesis should be critically situated… This collection is a long and rewarding set of essays on the different ways in which modernist works and the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari can add to the resources for thinking through a condition that has now become post-human. It is not possible to do justice to each essay or to the excellent and very helpful glossary entries at the end of the book.