A Politics of Things? Deleuze and the New Materialism

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 523-542
Author(s):  
Simon Schleusener
Keyword(s):  
Gilles Deleuze ◽  
Historical Materialism ◽  
Social Ontology ◽  
New Materialism ◽  
The Political ◽  
Material Conditions ◽  
Human Actors ◽  
The Way

Concentrating on the way in which new materialist authors like Jane Bennett have read and appropriated the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, this essay has two major objectives: first, it aims to point out the shortcomings of the new materialism's concept of the political (as it is formulated in Bennett's Vibrant Matter). Second, it seeks to investigate the differences and affinities between neomaterialist thought and Deleuze's philosophy. While Deleuze's focus on material becomings and concrete assemblages certainly lends itself to being utilised by neomaterialist authors, what many of these authors tend to ignore is the Marxian influence in Deleuze's thinking. It would be misleading, then, to see Deleuze as a new materialist avant la lettre, thereby implying that he categorically dismissed the ‘old’ (i.e. historical) materialism. Rather, what is unique about Deleuze's philosophy is its combination of a Marxist understanding of modes of production and their material conditions with a social ontology – inspired, among others, by Spinoza and Tarde – that emphasises the complex intermingling of human and non-human actors.

Labour, Eco-Regulation, and Value: A Response to Benton's Ecological Critique of Marx

1998 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Burkett
Keyword(s):  
Historical Materialism ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
The Political ◽  
Relational Approach ◽  
Political Conservatism ◽  
Historical Specificity ◽  
Material Conditions ◽  
The Unemployed

AbstractIn an earlier article, I responded to Ted Benton's charge that Marx and Engels, upon realising the political conservatism associated with Malthusian natural limits arguments, retreated from materialism to a social-constructionist conception of human production and reproduction. I showed that Benton artificially dichotomises the material and social elements of historical materialism, thereby misreading Marx and Engels's recognition of the historical specificity of material conditions as an outright denial of all natural limits. In place of Marx and Engels's materialist and class-relational approach to population issues and the reserve army of the unemployed, Benton employs a partially Malthusianised Marxism heavily reliant on ahistorical notions of natural limits.

From Constellations to Assemblages: Benjamin, Deleuze and the Question of Materialism

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 543-570
Author(s):  
Tanja Prokić
Keyword(s):  
Gilles Deleuze ◽  
Historical Materialism ◽  
The Other ◽  
New Materialism ◽  
Felix Guattari ◽  
Deleuze And Guattari ◽  
Assemblage Theory ◽  
The Past ◽  
The One

This essay investigates the differences and points of contact between Walter Benjamin's concept of ‘constellation’ (developed in various texts written between 1920 and 1940) and the notion of ‘assemblage’ as theorised by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. Both concepts address the entanglement of discourse and matter, bodies and devices, and raise questions regarding the historicity and temporality of different kinds of multiplicity. Presently, the term ‘assemblage’ figures prominently in the context of the new materialism, a theoretical movement which calls for a renewal of materialist ideas, proposing a break with the historical materialism of the past. Against this backdrop, the essay has a twofold purpose: first, by focusing on the notions of constellation and assemblage, it seeks to highlight the differences and analogies between the materialisms of Benjamin, on the one hand, and Deleuze and Guattari, on the other. Second, by examining the new materialism's appropriation of Deleuzian ‘assemblage theory’, it will not only analyse what is ‘new’ about the new materialism, but also underline its conceptual errors and political problems. Eventually, what the essay argues is that our contemporary (‘new materialist’) understanding of assemblages might indeed benefit from a more thorough engagement with the historical materialism of an author like Benjamin.

scholarly journals Educating Things: Art Education Beyond the Individual in the Post-Digital

2021 ◽  
pp. 225-238
Author(s):  
Annemarie Hahn
Keyword(s):  
Art Education ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Digital Materiality ◽  
Material Conditions ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Human Actors ◽  
Theoretical Considerations ◽  
The Way

AbstractCurrent digital infrastructures have not only profoundly changed the way people communicate with each other, but also the material conditions in which people relate to other people, people relate to things, and also things relate to things. These emerging alliances have an impact on relationships between human and non-human actors, and thus also on concepts of individual subjectivity. In the field of art, with neo-materialistic theoretical approaches, a new relationship can be observed between the artist-subject and the art-artifacts, which places the materials in the focus of the dissonance. This displacement is to the disadvantage of the individual artist-subject. In this chapter, these theoretical considerations are exemplified by an examination of the relations between people and things in the exhibition “Co-Workers - Network as Artist” at the MAM in Paris (2015/16). The exhibition is particularly interesting because of its understanding of digital materiality.

Leone de' Sommi and Jewish Theatre in Renaissance Mantua

2009 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-19
Author(s):  
Donald Beecher
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Social Negotiations ◽  
Renaissance Artist ◽  
The Way

This is a study of a Renaissance artist and his patrons, but with an added complication, insofar as Leone de' Sommi, the gifted academician and playwright in the employ of the dukes of Mantua in the second half of the sixteenth century, was Jewish and a lifelong promoter and protector of his community. The article deals with the complex relationship between the court and the Jewish "università" concerning the drama and the way in which dramatic performances also became part of the political, judicial and social negotiations between the two parties, as well as a study of Leone's role as playwright and negotiator during a period that was arguably one of the best of times for the Jews of Mantua.

“I'd make thee eat the mischief thou hast vented”: Discourse of Law in Ben Jonson's Catiline His Conspiracy

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-45
Author(s):  
Akihiko Shimizu
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Legal Discourse ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
State Of Emergency ◽  
Gunpowder Plot ◽  
Effective Use ◽  
Legal Procedures ◽  
The Way

This essay explores the discourse of law that constitutes the controversial apprehension of Cicero's issuing of the ultimate decree of the Senate (senatus consultum ultimum) in Catiline. The play juxtaposes the struggle of Cicero, whose moral character and legitimacy are at stake in regards to the extra-legal uses of espionage, with the supposedly mischievous Catilinarians who appear to observe legal procedures more carefully throughout their plot. To mitigate this ambivalence, the play defends Cicero's actions by depicting the way in which Cicero establishes the rhetoric of public counsel to convince the citizens of his legitimacy in his unprecedented dealing with Catiline. To understand the contemporaneousness of Catiline, I will explore the way the play integrates the early modern discourses of counsel and the legal maxim of ‘better to suffer an inconvenience than mischief,’ suggesting Jonson's subtle sensibility towards King James's legal reformation which aimed to establish and deploy monarchical authority in the state of emergency (such as the Gunpowder Plot of 1605). The play's climactic trial scene highlights the display of the collected evidence, such as hand-written letters and the testimonies obtained through Cicero's spies, the Allbroges, as proof of Catiline's mischievous character. I argue that the tactical negotiating skills of the virtuous and vicious characters rely heavily on the effective use of rhetoric exemplified by both the political discourse of classical Rome and the legal discourse of Tudor and Jacobean England.

The Political Theology of Schelling

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saitya Brata Das
Keyword(s):  
Martin Heidegger ◽  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
The Political ◽  
Franz Rosenzweig ◽  
Political Works ◽  
The Way

This book rigorously examines the theologico-political works of Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, setting his thought against Hegel's and showing how he prepared the way for the post-metaphysical philosophy of Martin Heidegger, Franz Rosenzweig and Jacques Derrida.

Artistic Challenges within Control Societies: Big Data and Democratic Resistance

MedienJournal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 50-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Jagodzinski
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Gilles Deleuze ◽  
Data Archive ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Way

This paper will first briefly map out the shift from disciplinary to control societies (what I call designer capitalism, the idea of control comes from Gilles Deleuze) in relation to surveillance and mediation of life through screen cultures. The paper then shifts to the issues of digitalization in relation to big data that have the danger of continuing to close off life as zoë, that is life that is creative rather than captured via attention technologies through marketing techniques and surveillance. The last part of this paper then develops the way artists are able to resist the big data archive by turning the data in on itself to offer viewers and participants a glimpse of the current state of manipulating desire and maintaining copy right in order to keep the future closed rather than being potentially open.

Menelaah Lebih Dekat “Post Factual/Post Truth Politics, Studi Kasus Brexit” (Analsis Resensi Media)

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eko Wahyono ◽  
Rizka Amalia ◽  
Ikma Citra Ranteallo
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
New Media ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
The Real ◽  
The Mass Media ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Way

This research further examines the video entitled “what is the truth about post-factual politics?” about the case in the United States related to Trump and in the UK related to Brexit. The phenomenon of Post truth/post factual also occurs in Indonesia as seen in the political struggle experienced by Ahok in the governor election (DKI Jakarta). Through Michel Foucault's approach to post truth with assertive logic, the mass media is constructed for the interested parties and ignores the real reality. The conclusion of this study indicates that new media was able to spread various discourses ranging from influencing the way of thoughts, behavior of society to the ideology adopted by a society.Keywords: Post factual, post truth, new media

Something Gleaming

Theoria ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 67 (165) ◽  
pp. 92-117
Author(s):  
Bronwyn Leebaw
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Political Role ◽  
Common Concern ◽  
The Way

What kinds of lessons can be learned from stories of those who resisted past abuses and injustices? How should such stories be recovered, and what do they have to teach us about present day struggles for justice and accountability? This paper investigates how Levi, Broz, and Arendt formulate the political role of storytelling as response to distinctive challenges associated with efforts to resist systematic forms of abuse and injustice. It focuses on how these thinkers reflected on such themes as witnesses, who were personally affected, to varying degrees, by atrocities under investigation. Despite their differences, these thinkers share a common concern with the way that organised atrocities are associated with systemic logics and grey zones that make people feel that it would be meaningless or futile to resist. To confront such challenges, Levi, Arendt and Broz all suggest, it is important to recover stories of resistance that are not usually heard or told in ways that defy the expectations of public audiences. Their distinctive storytelling strategies are not rooted in clashing theories of resistance, but rather reflect different perspectives on what is needed to make resistance meaningful in contexts where the failure of resistance is intolerable.

John Adams, Klinghoffer and The Transmigration of Souls: Musical Responses to Terrorism

Public Voices ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
John Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Modern World ◽  
The Political ◽  
John Adams ◽  
Political Dialogue ◽  
The Way

This paper explores the way in which the music of John Adams responds to terrorism and looks at some of the controversies surrounding his work. It represents a reflection on how the musical and the political can interact in the modern world, engaging his work on the level of political dialogue.

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