Graduate course: Deleuze and Feminism

University of Bergen, 2010

Professor Elizabeth Grosz, Rutgers University, USA/SKOK, UoB 

Brief Description
This course will focus on a close and selective reading of key texts written by Gilles Deleuze, and Deleuze and Felix Guattari. It is a self-contained course with no formal pre-requisites, and students will be expected to read the relevant texts closely, both before and after classes The course will be divided into two parts, which roughly correspond to the earlier and final phases in Deleuze's intellectual career: first, his early works, especially his writings on Nietzsche, and Bergson; and second, his collaborative writings with Guattari, including A Thousand Plateaus and What is Philosophy? The course will provide an intense, brief introduction to his most central and difficult concepts and questions - such as what is thinking? What is desire? What is the body? What is force? -  and explore their relevance for feminist theory and politics.

Course Requirements
The course is an intensive course, which will offer five 2 ½ - 3 hour seminars  for three days. It will require a detailed reading of Deleuze and Guattari's sometime difficult but always stimulating texts, and vigorous class discussion.

Assessment 
PhD-students (master students) who wish to have their writings for the course assessed have a deadline of exactly three months from the completion of the course (JUNE 15). Essays should be around 20 pages, double spaced, with a detailed bibliography of texts consulted. They should clearly explain what topic they are addressing and providing an in-depth reading of at least one text by Deleuze (or Deleuze and Guattari). If you plan to submit an essay, it is a good idea to check with professor Grosz first about your topic and appropriate readings. Email Grosz your essay as soon as it is complete.

To register, send an email to tone.lund-olsen@skok.uib.no by 19 April 2010.

Primary Texts

Gilles Deleuze

• Nietzsche and Philosophy
• Bergsonism

Deleuze & Guattari

• A Thousand Plateaus
• What is Philosophy?
  

Secondary Texts:

• Brian Massumi  A User's Guide to Capitalism and Schizophrenia
• Brian Massumi Parables for the Virtual
• Constantin Boundas   The Deleuze Reader
• Michael Hardt   Deleuze. An Apprenticeship in Philosophy
• I Buchanan and C Colebrook (eds) Deleuze and Feminism
• Claire Colebrook Gilles Deleuze
• Rosi Braidotti Metamorphoses

 

Course Outline :

NB! Below is a list of seminar topics. * designates the text is in the course reader. Any suggestions, changes or additions are welcome. Some topics may take more than one session.

 

TOPIC 1: Introduction to Deleuze

Reading: Deleuze and Parnet "A Conversation: What is it? What is it for?" Dialogues*

 

TOPIC 2:: Nietzsche: Active and Reactive Forces

Reading: Deleuze Nietzsche and Philosophy  Athloner, 1983 especially "Active and Reactive" pp. 39-72*

 

TOPIC 3: Bergson: The Virtual

Reading: Deleuze Bergsonism

Deleuze "Bergson, 1859-1941" Desert Islands Semiotexte 2005, pp. 22-30

Deleuze "Bergson's Conception of Difference" ibid. , pp. 32-50*

Deleuze and Parnet "The Actual and the Virtual" Dialogues II, Columbia UP, 2002: 148-152*

 

TOPIC 4: Becomings

Reading: Deleuze and F Guattari "How to Make Yourself a Body Without Organs" A Thousand

Plateaus University of Minnesota Press, 149-166

Deleuze and F Guattari "Becoming Animal..." A Thousand Plateaus University of Minnesota Press, 233-309.

TOPIC 5: What is Philosophy?

Reading: Deleuze and Guattari "What is a Concept?" What is Philosophy?* Columbia University

Press, 1994, pp. 15-34.

"Conclusion. From Chaos to the Brain" What is Philosophy? Columbia University Press 201-218

 

Background Feminist Texts:

Deleuze "Description of Woman. For a Philosophy of the Sexed Other" Angelaki, 7: 3, 2002, pp. 17-24*

R. Braidotti "Discontinuous Becomings: Deleuze on the Becoming Woman of Philosophy" Nomadic Subjects Columbia University  Press, New York 1994, pp.111-123*

C Colebrook "Is Sexual Difference a Problem?" in I Buchanan and C Colebrook (eds) Deleuze and Feminist Theory Edinburgh University Press, 2000, pp. 110-126*

Alison Bray and Claire Colebrook "The Haunted Flesh. Corporeal Feminism and the Politics of Disembodiment" Signs 1998, 24: 1, 35-57*

D Olkowski "Can a Feminist Read Deleuze and Guattari?" Gilles Deleuze and the Ruin of Representation University of California Press, 1999, pp. 32-58*

E Grosz "The Force of Sexual Difference' Time Travels. Feminism, Nature, Power Duke University Press, 171-183.