Week 13 Postmodern Subjectivity

Deleuze, Gilles and Felix Guattari. “ A Thousand Plateaus. ” Literary Theory: An Anthology. 2nd ed. Eds. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Oxford, UK: Blackwell,

A book = an assemblage = a multiplicity = a body without organs = a machine = desire ≠ ideology

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The first type: the root-book = the classical book = mimesis “ The book imitates the world, the world imitates nature ” (379). = subjective organic interiority = binaries, “ the One that becomes two ”

The second type: the radicle-system The fascicular root A book all the more total for being fragmented The principal root has aborted, its tip has been destroyed; an immediate indefinite multiplicity of secondary roots grafts onto it and undergoes a flourishing development.... but the root ’ s unity subsists... demanding an even more comprehensive secret unity, or a more extensive totality.... (379-80) Nietzsche, James Joyce

The third type: a rhizome =subterranean stem Characteristics –1. connection –2. heterogeneity –3. multiplicity –4. asignifying rupture

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Contrary to “ a deeply rooted belief, the book is not an image of the world. It forms a rhizome with the world.... (383) Example: the Pink Panther

A plateau A plateau is always in the middle, not at the beginning or the end. A rhizome is made of plateaus. A rhizome has no beginning or end; it is always in the middle, between things.... The tree is filiation, but the rhizome is alliance, uniquely alliance. The tree imposes the verb “ to be, ” but the fabric of the rhizome is the conjunction, “ and... and... and... ” (385-86).

Discussion

Francis Bacon - Study after Velazquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X –

Velazquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X

The End