Deleuze and Language

by Jean-Jacques Lecercle

In the field of philosophy of language, is there life beyond Chomsky? Deleuze's deep distrust for, and fascination with language provide a positive answer - nothing less than a brand new philosophy of language, where pragmatics replaces structural linguistics, and where the literary text and the concept of style have pride of place. This should be good news not only for philosophers, but for linguistics and literary critics as well.

283 pages, Hardcover

First published October 7, 2002

About the author

Jean-Jacques Lecercle is Professor of English at the University of Paris at Nanterre. He has published widely in the fields of philosophy of language and literary theory, and is the author of The Violence of Language, Philosophy of Nonsense, Interpretations of Pragmatics and Deleuze and Language.

Reviews

[Zoonanism · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a delightful meditation . As one who considers Deleuzian terms and concepts, daft and nonsensical, I could still enjoy their patient methodical application to the selected works. Interludes on Kipling, Cummings, Dickens, Swift, Joyce demonstrated such love for style and stuttering. I would really like to re-read this at some future date and write a more detailed review.

[PanicPillow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lecercle's take on Deleuze's philosophy of language might not be a complete fit as he manages to gloss over certain aspects that I believe are central to understanding especially the pragmatical take on language in Mille Plateaux (such as the interchangable status of body and sign, the function of il and the illocutive functioning of language). Still it is a comprehensive and illuminating explication of what is mostly implicit theory of language, that develops and radically changes throughout the works of Deleuze.