Communism After Deleuze

Alex Taek-Gwang Lee is a professor of cultural studies at the School of Global Communication and a founding director of the Center for Technology in Humanities at Kyung Hee University, Korea.

• 1. Introduction: Deleuze and Minor Communism2. Deleuze and Structuralism3. From Anti-Oedipus to A Thousand Plateaus4. Faciality, Ritournelle, and the Urstaat5. Deleuze’s unwritten Marx6. Conclusion: How Do We Recognise Deleuze’s Communism?

Alex Taek-Gwang Lee casts the much-debated issue of Deleuze’s proposed book on Marx in a completely new light. His rich and wide-ranging discussion develops the audacious hypothesis that Deleuze’s Marx book already exists in virtual form, implicit in the series of his philosophical encounters with post-war French Marxism. Lee identifies the many points at which Deleuze departs from the Marxism of his time, in both its official and its oppositional (Althusserian) varieties, while remaining within its conceptual and aspirational field. He argues that, insofar as it is aligned with ‘becoming-revolutionary’ and committed to bringing about new earths and new peoples, Deleuze’s conception of philosophy bears witness to another, minoritarian Idea of communism. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the political dimension of Deleuze’s philosophy.