Towards a Political Anthropology in the Work of Gilles Deleuze

Rockwell F. Clancy is a lecturer in the Humanities and Social Sciences Education Program at the University of Michigan-;Shanghai Jiao Tong Joint Institute, Shanghai, China.

• AcknowledgementsAbbreviationsPrefaceFrom Psychoanalysis and Literature to Political Anthropology IntroductionDeleuze, Politics, and the Problem of Human Nature1. Politics and the Problem of Human Nature: Political Anthropology 2. Deleuze and the Problem of Human Nature: Philosophical AnthropologyChapter OneThe Metaphysics of PsychoanalysisIntroduction: Psychoanalysis as Idealism and D.H. Lawrence1. Philosophy and Literature in Lawrence2. Psychoanalytic Reading in Freud, Bonaparte, and Lacan 3. A Note on “Pollyanalytics” and Problem of Critique 4. Praxis and Philosophical Anthropology in Marx and Engels 5. A Substance Theory of Mind and Theological Motivations in Descartes 6. Experiential Unity and Transcendental Subjectivity in Kant 7. Spirit as Ground and the Dialectical Method in Hegel 8. Marx versus Descartes, Kant, and Hegel 9. Lawrence’s Conception of the Unconscious 10. Lawrence and the Psychoanalytic Tradition: Drive Theories and Individuation 11. Familial Relations, according to Lawrence12. The Individual and Society, according to Lawrence Conclusion Chapter TwoThe Metaphysics of Classic American LiteratureIntroduction: Language, Literature, and Lawrence 1. Classic American Literature and American Identity 2. Changing Identity by Changing the Blood 3. New Criticism and Reader Response: The Same Old Problem 4. Classic American Literature: Conditions Material and Ideal, Body and Mind 5. Spinoza and Lawrence: Parallelism and Classic American Literature 6. Individuals, Community, and Sympathy: Lawrence and Spinoza 7. Sympathy and Multitude: Anti-Democracy and Fascism Conclusion Chapter ThreeReading Anti-Oedipus from behind with LawrenceIntroduction: From a Critique of Psychoanalysis… 1. A Note on Metaphysics: The Organic Model 2. The Specificity of Schizophrenic Experience 3. A Materialist Conception of the Unconscious 4. Syntheses of the Unconscious 5. Connective Synthesis 6. Disjunctive Synthesis 7. Conjunctive Synthesis 8. Social Machines 9. Primitive Territorial Machine 10. Barbarian Despotic Machine 11. Civilized Capitalist Machine ConclusionChapter FourAnglo-American Literature as a Philosophical Concept Introduction: …to the Superiority of Anglo-American Literature1. The Line of Flight: Exiting versus Leaving2. Anglo-American Literature: Individuals and Community 3. Tricksters versus Traitors: Imitation versus Becoming 4. Hume and the Exteriority of Relations 5. Spinoza, Parallelism, and Affects 6. Bodies, Events, and the Stoics 7. Assemblages and the Political Conclusion Chapter FiveThe Political Significance of Opinion, Philosophy, and ArtIntroduction: Opinion as a Problem 1. Elements of Opinion 2. Development of Opinion in Relation to Chaos: Denial 3. Political Significance of Opinion: Creating Consensus 4. Elements of Philosophy and Art 5. Relation of Philosophy and Art to Chaos: Uneasy Alliance 6. Political Significance of Philosophy and Art: Inventing a People, Making BrainsConclusion Chapter SixCreating a People to Come Introduction: Liberalism and its Failures 1. Inclusive Particularism: THe Political Significance of Philosophy and Art 2. D.H. Lawrence, Christianity, and Fundamentalism 3. The Meaning(s) of Revelation 4. Christianity: Aristocratic and Popular 5. Selves: Individual and Collective 6. People and Power 7. T.E. Lawrence, Arabs, and Exclusivism 8. The Creation of Shame as an Affect 9. The Political Significance of Literature 10. Becoming (with but not like) Arab 11. Walt Whitman, America, and Nationalism 12. The Specificity of American Experience 13. An Alliance with Nature as Fragmented Reality 14. The Creation of Relations as Camaraderie Conclusion ConclusionPolitical Anthropology, Liberalism, and DeleuzeBibliographyIndex

This is an ambitious book that makes significant contributions to Deleuze studies. Clancy’s advocacy of a Deleuzian political anthropology offers a provocative alternative to previous accounts of Deleuze’s political philosophy, especially in its valorization of the arts as primary forces in the creation of a viable collectivity. Clancy’s exposition of Lawrence’s critical works, especially his books on psychoanalysis, brings to the fore texts that have been ignored by Deleuze scholars, and the parallels he draws between Lawrence and Deleuze/Guattari are striking. Readers will have to decide for themselves to what extent the parallels are signs of Lawrence’s influence on his successors or a mere confluence of interests. There is no doubt that Lawrence is the primary source of Deleuze’s understanding of Anglo-American literature in general and Whitman in particular. But one might well argue that Deleuze and Guattari developed their critique of psychoanalysis independently of Lawrence and simply saw in him a welcome ally in their struggle against the pieties of the Oedipus complex. Whether the Lawrence-Deleuze/Guattari connection constitutes influence or a confluence of interest, however, is of little moment. What counts is the connection itself, which in Clancy’s treatment gives rise to an original and compelling reading of Deleuze and Guattari, one that deserves the serious attention of everyone in the field.Ronald Bogue, Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy - Revue de la philosophie française et de langue française, Vol XXVI, No 1 (2018) pp 134-137