Course description
In 1964 Gilles Deleuze publishes a book on Proust. The first objective of the course will be to show that while dealing with topics that apparently belong to the field of literature theory, Deleuze describes here a new anthropological type — «the man of the sign». The concept of the sign is used by Deleuze in a way that differs from that of the structuralists and post-structuralists and serves him in order to describe a special way of life — the life of meeting and following the imposing and the intruding.

While describing and determining this way of life and the human type that stands behind it, the course will show, that this new conception of «sign» presupposes a new understanding of nature and a new way of interacting with the environment. The sign as the imposer and intruder does not acknowledges the common distinctions between the human and the unhuman, natural and cultural, live and dead. However, this ontology remains implicit in the book on Proust. The course will try to show how the attempts to work out such a flat ontology of the sign and make it explicit enable to understand such central themes of Deleuze’s thought as «the eternal return of the different», «quasi-cause», «becoming animal». A special focus will be put on the development of this line of thought in post-deleuzian philosophy, in the concept of «Geo-trauma», proposed by Cyber Culture Research Unit in the 1990s and developed by Reza Negarestany in his «Cyclonopedia».

In the second part of the course we will try to clarify the main characteristics of the new system of relations with the outside presupposed be the anthropological type of «the man of the sign» by situating it in a broader historical context. Two main points of reference here will be Goethe’s philosophy of nature and «indigenous thinking» as described by Eduardo Vivieros de Castro in his «Cannibal Metaphysics».

Goethe’s «Wilhelm Meister» will be analyzed as a «proto-man of sign», one of the first appearances of the anthropological type described by Deleuze in the modern European culture. The course will show that this first appearance of «man of sign» already presupposes a new understanding of the nature, as expressed in «Elective affinities» and Goethe’s writings on colour and plants.

The epistemological practices and «ethno-metaphysics» analyzed by de Castro, will provide us with an opportunity to compare the European way of thinking the flat ontology of the sign with that of the Amerindian people. We will explore such concepts introduced by de Castro, as «agent abduction», «interspecific perspectivism» and «ontological multi-naturalism» in order to examine the specific character of the interactions with the outside, discovered by de Castro’s anthropology of immanence, and compare it with Deleuze’s and Goethe’s ones.

Learning outcomes
- Helping students to understand how the opposition natural/cultural functions in different anthropological contexts
- Providing basic understanding of modern flat ontologies
- Providing basic tools for understanding Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy

Teaching and evaluation methods
- The main way of teaching will be the collective reading and discussing of the texts. The basic text for a close reading and discussion will be that of Deleize’s «Proust and signs», and of de Castro’s «Cannibal Metaphysics».
- The evaluation of the course will be based on activity during the seminars (40%) and a final essay (60%)

Selected Bibliography
Main literature:
De Castro, E. V. Cannibal Metaphysics. University of Minnesota Press, 2017
Deleuze, G. Proust and signs. University of Minnesota Press, 2003
Goethe, W. Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship // Goethe W. The Collected Works. Volume 9. Princeton University Press, 1995

Additional literature:
CCRU. Barker // CCRU. Writings 1997-2003. Urbanomic, 2017. P. 147–166.
Deleuze, G. Masochism, coldness and cruelty // Deleuze, G., Sacher-Masoch, L. Masochism. Zone Books, 1991
Goethe, W. Elective affinities. Oxford University Press, 2008
Moretti, F. The Bourgeois: Between History and Literature. Verso Books, 2014
Negarestany, R. Cyclonopedia: Complicity with Anonymous Materials. Re.Press, 2008

Last updated: January 23, 2024