In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • Deleuze and Politics
  • Sophie Fuggle
Deleuze and Politics. Edited by Ian Buchanan and Nicholas Thoburn. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2008. x + 262 pp. Hb £60.00. Pb £19.99.

According to the claim of much contemporary scholarship, most notably that of Peter Hallward (Out of this World: Deleuze and the Philosophy of Creation), Deleuze's thought offers little or no possibility for engaging with the political. Deleuze and Politics goes against the grain of such claims. Without taking it as a given that Deleuze is a political thinker, each essay in the collection grapples with the question of politics in relation to both Deleuze's work (most frequently his collaborations with Félix Guattari) and broader conceptions of what might be termed 'Deleuzian' ways of thinking and acting (not to mention 'becoming'). Focusing on the political dimension (or the potential value as political tool) of key Deleuzian concepts and sets of concepts such as the war machine, micropolitics and deterritorialization, each contributor provides his or her own take on where and how Deleuze might provide a useful supplement to existing political thought. Eugene W. Holland considers how Deleuze and Guattari's theory of schizoanalysis might not only be applied to the study of interwar fascism but also to the more recent 'fascism' of the Bush Jr. regime. Nicholas Thoburn critiques the figure of the militant, upheld by so many leftist thinkers, through an examination of Weatherman and the Black Panther Party, identifying a solution to the problem of 'militant subjectivity' in Deleuze and Guattari's own a-militant stance. There are a number of common threads running throughout the collection; the question as to the precise nature of Deleuze's engagement with Marx and Marxism is raised by a number of contributors, most notably Isabelle Garo and Jason Read. Michel Foucault's notions of biopolitics and discursive practices are regularly called upon to add weight to some of Deleuze's own conceptions of power and institutional structures. Yet despite including several stimulating articles from well-known Deleuzian scholars—Claire Colebrook's discussion of 'Bourgeois Thermodynamics' demonstrating her capability for more heavyweight engagement with Deleuze following her highly successful series of introductory texts—the publication nevertheless lacks an overall coherency and energy needed to convince the reader of Deleuze's value as a political thinker. One is [End Page 496] left wondering by the end as to why we should bother with Deleuze at all when we already have a whole plethora of left-wing philosophers—Derrida, Badiou, Balibar (to name but a few of those referenced)—clamouring for the political limelight. Indeed, for some contributors, Deleuze seems only to provide the starting point for discussions of other thinkers. Elsewhere he is added almost as an afterthought. In the essays where his thought is pushed to its limits in relation to notions of 'peoples', 'minorities' and 'democracy' all we end up with are the elusive and empty possibilities of thinking things differently with little suggestion as to how this might come about. Perhaps what is really at stake here is less the question as to whether Deleuze does politics and more the question of whether politics needs Deleuze.

Sophie Fuggle
King's College London
...

pdf

Share