Deleuze: A Guide for the Perplexed

Guides for the Perplexed

by Claire Colebrook

Continuum's Guides for the Perplexed are clear, concise and accessible introductions to thinkers, writers and subjects that students and readers can find especially challenging. Concentrating specifically on what it is that makes the subject difficult to fathom, these books explain and explore key themes and ideas, guiding the reader towards a thorough understanding of demanding material. Gilles Deleuze is undoubtedly one of the seminal figures in modern Continental thought. However, his philosophy makes considerable demands on the student; his major works make for challenging reading and require engagement with some difficult concepts and complex systems of thought. A Guide for the Perplexed is the ideal text for anyone who needs to get to grips with Deleuzian thought, offering a thorough, yet approachable account of the central themes in his sense; univocity; intuition; singularity; difference. His ideas related to language, politics, ethics and consciousness are explored in detail and - most importantly - clarified. The book also locates Deleuze in the context of his philosophical influences and antecedents and highlights the implications of his ideas for a range of disciplines from politics to film theory. Throughout, close attention is paid to Deleuze's most influential publications, including the landmark texts The Logic of Sense and Difference and Repetition.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

188 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Claire Colebrook is an Australian cultural theorist, currently appointed Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English at Pennsylvania State University. She has published numerous works on Gilles Deleuze, visual art, poetry, queer theory, film studies, contemporary literature, theory, cultural studies and visual culture.

Reviews

[Ruby · Rating 2 out of 5]

so, I did not really finish this, but I spent enough time with it to know that this did not make me any less perplexed re: Deleuze. having said that, I don't think it's a bad book, just not an introduction.

[Stef Rozitis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not initially do this book justice. It deepens in complexity as it goes on. As other reviewers have said no guarantees it will make you less perplexed, at times in the early chapters I wondered if it was Colebrook speaking her opinion or trying to open up Deleuze. By the final chapter I felt I like I was seeing the point more.

In places the book seems determinedly value-free which I think is not fair to Deleuze (ie other commentators have called him anti-fascist and I think his anti-capitalist work is genuinely what it seems to be). By the end there is a hint of sympathy for theorists who use Deleuze to open up rigid categories, binaries and "governing images" but I am not sure how much of that I read into the text because I am looking for it. Also while Colebrook's idea of a baby breastfeeding is probably true to Deleuze (who seems to have no understanding of this) it doesn't fit my experience of actually having fed babies. They don't push frantically forward to attain closeness or better flow, they go to sleep on the breast. The baby at the breast is not a colonist or capitalist, she/he is as likely to become a completely different type of society and economic system. So apart from the essentialism of the image (which seems unlike Deleuze) it doesn't fit reality either, it's another patriarchal "governing image" only.

Colebrook's explanation of "becoming woman" was useful and almost clear (which considering what she was explaining was quite a feat). I will be looking back on that for my own thinking. The other very useful idea was the one (I'd started to suspect) that Deleuze contradicts himself and usefully Colebroo takes us through some of the twists and turns of this and puts dates and a bit of history to the texts.

In the end I am glad I did not give up on this.

[Gina Herald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent overview of temporal currency and the relationship of art to atemporality/synthesis. Concise, digestible, and clear. Great way to gain background before diving into pure Deleuze.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author focused on Deleuze’s work on cinema to explain language, life, and meaning. This claims not to be an example of Deleuze’s thought but rather to explain the roots and reasons for Deleuze’s thoughts.

There were some sections that I thought really showcased that point, whereas other places I was lost. I don’t think that’s the authors fault as I am early in my understanding of Deleuze and his contributions to French poststructuralism.

[CM]

Stopped after page 60.

When the author calls her book "an account and a defense", it should give you a hint the book is not really a primer. The first chapter is deceptively welcoming: it introduces major concepts in a challenging way and sets up false expectations. Once you go past that, you will find more interpretation than explanation, more proclamation than elaboration, without much organization or structure in sight. It is not the guide its title purports to be.

[Madelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

"It is precisely the image of BOUNDED life that Deleuze sees as THE illusion that has dominated philosophy and that is overcome in the radical connections of art."

[Jamal Sahraoui · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is lucid at times, perplexing at others.

[W. · Rating 3 out of 5]

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