Hauptanliegen der Dissertation ist es, einen Entwurf einer praktischen Ästhetik zu lancieren, der an der Schnittstelle zwischen philosophischer Ästhetik und Kunst – genauer Performancekunst - im Zeichen der Bezugsgrösse der Verletzbarkeit steht. <br><br> In jüngeren Ästhetikansätzen hat sich eine Auffassung herauskristallisiert, die nicht über, sondern mit Kunst reflektiert. Die Pointe im ‚Mit’ liegt darin, dass diese Ästhetiken die Kunst nicht erklären, sie bestimmen und damit ihre Bedeutung festlegen, sondern dass diese entlang der Kunst die Brüche, Widerstände und Zäsuren zwischen Wahrnehmen und Denken markieren und diese als produktiv bewerten. Diese Lesart etabliert ein Denken, das nicht aus der Distanz auf etwas schaut (theoria), sondern ästhetisch-reflektierend (zurückwendend, auch selbstkritisch) mit der Kunst denkt. <br><br> Die Disziplin der Ästhetik - als aisthesis: Lehre der sinnlichen Wahrnehmung - nimmt innerhalb der Philosophie eine besondere Stellung ein, weil sie auf ebendiese Differenz verweist und deshalb sinnliche und nicht nur logisch-argumentatorische Denkfiguren stärkt. Als eine Möglichkeit, die Kluft, das Nicht-Einholbare, die brüchige Unzulänglichkeit des begrifflich Denkenden gegenüber ästhetischer Erfahrung zu stärken, schlage ich die Bezugsgrösse der Verletzbarkeit vor. Eine solche Ästhetik besteht aus dem Kreieren verletzbarer Orte, wobei diese auf zweierlei Weisen umkreist werden: Zum einen aus der Kunstpraxis heraus anhand der ästhetischen Figur des verletzbaren Körpes, wie er sich in der zeitgenössischen Performance zeigt. Zum anderen als ein Kreieren von Begriffen im Bewusstsein ihrer Verletzbarkeit. <br><br> Ausgangspunkte sind die Denkentwürfe von Gilles Deleuze und Hans Blumenberg:<br><br> Die Ästhetik von Gilles Deleuze entwirft eine konkrete Überschneidungsmöglichkeit von Kunst und Philosophie, aus der sich meine These des Mit-Kunst-Denkens entwickeln lässt. Sie kann aus der Grundvoraussetzung des Deleuzeschen Denkens heraus begründet werden, die besagt, dass nicht nur die Kunst, sondern auch die Philosophie eine schöpferische Tätigkeit ist. Beide Disziplinen beruhen auf dem Prinzip der creatio continua, durch welche die Kunst Empfindungen und die Philosophie Begriffe schöpft, wobei eben genau dieser schöpferische Prozess Kunst und Philosophie in ein produktives Verhältnis zueinander treten lässt. Wie Deleuze seine Begriffsarbeit entlang künstlerischer Praxis entwickelt, wird anhand der Analyse des bis heute wenig rezipierten Textes Ein Manifest weniger in Bezug auf das Theater von Carmelo Bene analysiert. <br><br> Eine ganz anderen Zugang zum Entwurf einer praktischen Ästhetik liefert Hans Blumenberg, der eine Theorie der Unbegrifflichkeit in Aussicht stellt. Im Anschluss an seine Forderung, die Metapher wieder vermehrt in die philosophische Denkpraxis zu integrieren, radikalisiert er seine Forderung, auch das Nichtanschauliche zu berücksichtigen, indem er das gänzlich Unbegriffliche an die Seite des Begrifflichen stellt. Definitorische Schwäche zeigt sich als wahrhaftige Stärke, die in der Unbegrifflichkeit ihren Zenit erreicht. Der Schiffbruch wird von mir als zentrale Metapher – gewissermassen als Metapher der Metapher – verstanden, die das Auf-Grund-Laufen des Allwissenden veranschaulicht. Im Schiffbruch wird die produktive Kollision von Theorie und Praxis deutlich. <br><br> Deleuze und Blumenberg zeigen über ‚creatio continua’ und ‚Unbegrifflichkeit’ die Grenzen des Begreifens, indem sie betonen, dass sich Ästhetik nicht nur auf künstlerische Erfahrungen bezieht, sondern selber in das Gegenwärtigmachen von Erfahrungen involviert ist. Daraus folgt, dass ästhetische Reflexion nicht nur begrifflich agieren muss. Die praktische Ästhetik animiert dazu, andere darstellerische Formen (Bilder, Töne, Körper) als differente und ebenbürtige reflexive Modi anzuerkennen und sie als verletzbarmachende Formate der Sprache an die Seite zu stellen. Diese Lesart betont den gestalterischen Aspekt der Ästhetik selber. <br><br> Zur Verdeutlichung dieser Kluft zwischen (Körper-)Bild und Begriff ist der von mir mitgestaltete Film Augen blickeN der Dissertation als Kapitel beigefügt. Dieser Film zeigt Performer und Performerinnen, die sich bewusst entschieden haben, ihren ‚abweichenden’ Körper auf der Bühne zu präsentieren. Das Wort Verletzbarkeit verweist auf die paradoxe Situation, etwas Brüchiges tragfähig zu machen und dadurch auch auf eine besondere Beziehungsform und auf ein existenzielles Aufeinander-Verwiesensein der Menschen. Verletzbarkeit geht alle an, und stiftet deshalb eine Gemeinsamkeit besonderer Art. In diesem Sinne sind verletzbare Orte nicht nur ästhetische, sondern auch ethische Orte, womit die politische Dimension des Vorhabens betont wird. / Vulnerable Places. Outline of a practical aesthetics <br><br> The main thrust of the thesis is to launch the design for a practical aesthetics that would be situated at the interface between philosophical aesthetics and art – performance art, to be specific – with particular reference to the notion of vulnerability. <br><br> In more recent approaches to aesthetics a mode of thinking has emerged that engages in reflection not about art but rather with art. The point is for aesthetics not so much to explain and determine the meaning of art but rather to proceed alongside art in order to mark and appreciate the breaks, resistances and gaps between perception and thought. This way of reading establishes a kind of thinking that engages in aesthetic reflection with art (looking back onto itself, sometimes self-critically) rather than looking at something from a distance (theoria). <br><br> The discipline of aesthetics – in the sense of aisthesis, the theory of sense perception – has a special place within philosophy because it points towards exactly that difference, which strengthens sensual patterns of thought as opposed to those based on logical argument. I suggest the term vulnerability as a point of reference that will provide an opportunity to intensify the gap, the incommensurability, the fragile insufficiency of conceptual thought vis-à-vis aesthetic experience. Such an aesthetics consists in the creation of vulnerable places, revolving around them in two different circles: on the one hand approaching from the practice of art on the basis of the aesthetic figure of the vulnerable body as manifested in contemporary performance art, and on the other hand as the creation of terms and concepts with an awareness of their vulnerability. <br><br> The conceptual designs of Gilles Deleuze and Hans Blumenberg form points of departure for this argument: <br><br> Gilles Deleuze’ aesthetics outlines a concrete possibility of overlap between art and philosophy, on the basis of which my hypothesis of ‘thinking with art’ can be developed. It can be argued on the basis of the underlying assumptions of Deleuzian thought - the notion that not only art but also philosophy is a creative activity. Both disciplines are based on the principle of a creatio continua through which art creates sensations and philosophy concepts. And it is exactly this creative process that allows art and philosophy to enter into a productive relationship. The way Deleuze develops his conceptual work alongside artistic practice is shown on the basis of an analysis of the little known text Un manifeste de moins with reference to the theatre of Carmelo Bene. <br><br> Hans Blumenberg provides a completely different approach to the design of a practical aesthetics, indicating a theory of in-conceptuality. Following his call for an increased integration of metaphor into the practice of philosophical thought, he takes this further in the more radical call to take into equal consideration the non-sensual by placing the non-conceptual side by side with the conceptual. Weakness in definition emerges as the true strength, which reaches its apogee in its in-conceptuality. I understand the shipwreck as a central metaphor – in a sense as the metaphor of metaphor – that illustrates the grounding and failure of omniscience. The shipwreck illustrates the productive collision between theory and practice. <br><br> Through ‘creatio continua’ and ‘in-conceptuality’, Deleuze and Blumenberg show the limits of understanding by emphasizing that aesthetics not only refers to artistic experiences but is itself involved in the process of making experiences present. That means: Aesthetic reflection must proceed in ways other than just by conceptual means. Practical aesthetics encourages us to recognize other forms of representation (such as images, sounds, bodies) as different reflective modes of equal standing, and to place them side by side with language as forms that make one vulnerable. Such a reading emphasises the creative and design aspect of aesthetics itself. <br><br> The film ‘Point of View’, which I co-produced, forms an additional chapter of the thesis in order to illustrate the gap between (body-)image and concept. The film shows performers who have consciously decided to present their ‘deviant’ bodies on stage. The term vulnerability indicates the paradoxical task to enable something fragile to carry some weight; thus it also points towards a special form of relationship, to the way human beings are existentially dependent on each other. Since vulnerability concerns everyone, it establishes a special kind of community. In that sense, vulnerable places are not just aesthetic but also ethical places, which emphasizes the political dimension of the task.

Este trabalho tem como fonte de estudo os filmes do diretor húngaro Béla Tarr, começando com Ninho Familiar, de 1977, e encerrando com O Cavalo de Turim, de 2011. Neste período o cineasta realizou, além de outros trabalhos, nove longasmetragens, alguns dos quais em parceria com o escritor húngaro László Krasznahorkai. Entretanto, esta pesquisa não tratou de suas obras como unidades separadas e/ou totalizáveis, mas como blocos de imagens em permanente contato com um plano de questionamentos a respeito da experiência estética do pensamento. Deste modo, o trabalho com os filmes teve como foco a análise fragmentos, continuidades e descontinuidades, por meio dos quais procurou traçar uma linha relacional entre o estilo das imagens e o problema do pensamento. Do ponto de vista da problematização do pensamento, esta pesquisa esteve ancorada no solo teórico-metodológico desenvolvido por Gilles Deleuze e Gilles Deleuze & Félix Guattari, do qual partiu o desenvolvimento de um estudo a respeito de quais os procedimentos audiovisuais criados nos filmes e de como eles possibilitam uma experiência radicalmente imanente do pensamento e, portanto, essencialmente intensiva. Ou seja, esta dissertação se voltou para um estudo dos procedimentos de criação audiovisual, entendendo-os como modos intensivos por meio dos quais se torna possível sentir o aparecimento deste espaço vazio que constitui a experiência do próprio pensamento não-subjetivo ou, dito em outras palavras, como vivência do tempo em sua multiplicidade intensiva. Portanto, foi no interior deste campo de questionamento que perspectivamos o cinema de Béla Tarr, tratando de desenvolver uma visão analítica que não partisse das premissas de uma divisão simplesmente formal dos procedimentos cinematográficos e que tampouco partisse da crença a respeito de um possível lugar exterior e desinteressado em relação às obras, o qual possibilitaria, por exemplo, uma leitura verídica a respeito das intencionalidades mais ou menos ocultas em cada um dos filmes. Ao invés destes modos analíticos, esta dissertação tentou se endereçar às obras procurando compreender como elas articulam injunções e/ou desvios de forças, criando, por meio de afecções e afectos, um procedimento imanente, no sentido do próprio encontro entre o olhar e a tela. Deste modo, cada capítulo desta dissertação desenvolve, a partir de um conjunto determinado de filmes do diretor, uma compreensão a respeito das forças, as quais, por vezes, exigiram a entrada de leituras transversais, advindas tanto do conjunto da obra do diretor, como de pensadores do campo filosofia, e também da literatura e do próprio cinema. É neste sentido que o cinema de Béla Tarr se converte em um teorema, ou em um nó, que solicita um diálogo orgânico tanto com teóricos que escreveram a respeito dos filmes, mas também com outros pensadores, como é o caso notório de Friedrich Nietzsche. / This research is grounded in the films of the Hungarian director Béla Tarr, the first of which is Family Nest (1977) and the last is Turin\'s Horse (2011). Through this period, the filmmaker made, among other works, nine feature films, some of which in partnership with the writer László Krasznahorkai. Nevertheless, this research did not deal with their works as separable and/or inseparable units, but as blocs of images in constant contact with a surface of questions regarding the aesthetic experience of thought. By analyzing the films through fragments, continuities, ruptures and discontinuities we were able to draw a relational line between the style of the images and the problem of thought. Regarding the problem of though, this study is anchored to the theses and methodologies developed by Gilles Deleuze and Gilles Deleuze & Félix Guattari. From that, we investigated which audiovisual procedures created on the films could make us think of a radically immanent experience of thought and, therefore, an essentially intensive one. Therefore, this academic work looked for audiovisual creations understood as intensive modes to seize the emergence of this empty space that constitutes the experience of non-subjective thought in other words, time as intensive multiplicity. Therefore, we conceive an analytic view that neither stems from a formal division of film procedures nor from the belief on a possible place of detachment apart from the films or a place that could permit, for instance, a truthful reading on the more or less hidden intentions behind each film. What this research aimed for was to understand how the films of Béla Tarr articulate injunctions and detours of forces that allow us, by affections and affects, to think of them as purely immanent procedures. Moreover, each chapter, based on a determined set of Tarr\'s films, developed a comprehension of the encounters between forces, which, at times, requested transversal readings, coming from thinkers of Philosophy, Literature and Cinema itself, including works on the ouevre of the director. It is in this sense that Béla Tarr\'s cinema appears as a theorem, or a knot, that invites us to an organic dialogue not only with theorists that wrote about his films, but also with other thinkers, such as Friedrich Nietzsche.

No description available.

Neoliberalism has been on the rise at least since the mid-1980s. The economization of the social and the increasing globalization of capital show all the characteristics of a neoliberal governmentality, as Michel Foucault has analyzed it (cf. Foucault 2008). Gilles Deleuze described this process as a new transformation of the disciplinary society into a control society, which he briefly sketched and described in his far-sighted and ‘prophetic’ essay (cf. Deleuze 1992). However, it is not just as if Deleuze is saying “Fuck ould Foucault, move over.” Rather, Deleuze shows that Foucault’s analysis revealed that the disciplinary society (with its heyday in the 18th, 19th, and much of the 20th century) was only the actual (still present but disappearing) of the then pertinent predicament, whereas the society of control was already chomping-

[pt] O presente trabalho tem por objetivo pensar o lugar do conceito de negatividade no interior da filosofia de Gilles Deleuze, frequentemente alcunhado como filósofo da afirmação. Conceitos como alegria e positividade foram utilizados na constituição de um cânone da alegria interpretativo, conforme a denominação de Andrew Culp, que confunde a primazia deleuziana da afirmação, como índice de univocidade ou imanência de uma diferença transcendental subjacente ao ser, com a exclusão irrestrita de todo elemento negativo de seu sistema. Nesse panorama, nossa pretensão é dupla: por um lado, partindo da definição geral do conceito deleuziano de univocidade, demonstrar de que modo as interpretações indicadas, ditas afirmacionistas, ao negligenciarem, em Deleuze, um sentido específico de negatividade, atinente ao seu conceito de criação, reproduzem um certo sentido de dogmatismo, enfaticamente criticado pelo autor. A figura tomada por Deleuze, nessas interpretações, arrisca ser, ela mesma, tornada mais um dos avatares do que o autor chamou de senso comum filosófico. Por outro lado, tentamos definir uma primeira forma de concepção dessa chamada negatividade, o que inclui esforços conceituais distintos. Primeiro, a exposição de leituras que também concebem, em Deleuze, espaço para o negativo; segundo, a tematização da relação entre Deleuze e Hegel, filósofo paradigmático da negatividade e objeto constante de críticas deleuzianas; terceiro, finalmente, a proposta de um conceito inicial de negatividade, oriundo da análise do que diz o autor, nomeadamente, sobre o termo. Um tal conceito deve basear-se no reconhecimento do primado ético da negação, enquanto vetor de orientação prática de um indivíduo situado do ponto de vista da atualidade do tempo presente, em oposição ao primado ontológico da afirmação, manifesto na compreensão da diferença como forma ou fundamento transcendental da experiência. / [en] The present work aims to think about the place of the concept of negativity within the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, often nicknamed as a philosopher of affirmation. Concepts such as joy and positivity were used in the constitution of an interpretive canon of joy, according to Andrew Culp s denomination, which confuses Deleuzian primacy of afirmation, as an index of univocity or immanence of a transcendental difference underlying being, with an unrestricted exclusion of every negative element from his system. In this sense, our pretension is twofold: on the one hand, starting from the general definition of the concept of univocity, to demonstrate in which way the indicated interpretations, called affirmationists, by neglecting, in Deleuze, a specific sense of negativity related to his concept of creation, reproduce a certain sense of dogmatism, emphatically criticized by the author. The figure taken by Deleuze, in these interpretations, risks being itself made one of the avatars of what the author called philosophical common sense. On the other hand, we try to define a first way of conceiving this so-called negativity, what includes different conceptual efforts. First, an exhibition of readings that also conceive, in Deleuze, space for the negative; second, the thematization of the relationship between Deleuze and Hegel, the paradigmatic philosopher of negativity and constant object of Deleuzian criticism; third, finally, a proposal for an initial concept of negativity, derived from the analysis of what the author directly says regarding to the term. Such a concept must be based on the recognition of an ethical primacy of negation, comprehended as a vector for the practical orientation of an individual situated from the point of view of present time s actuality, as opposed to the ontological primacy of affirmation, manifest in the comprehension of difference as a transcendental form or foundation of experience.

[pt] Uma questão central percorre a filosofia de Gilles Deleuze, a da determinação das multiplicidades nelas mesmas: o que são; qual a sua matéria; seus elementos; o tipo de relação que elas implicam; sua realidade singular e seus acontecimentos. Nossa pretensão foi explorar essa questão a partir do mapeamento de três registros fundamentais: o primeiro, correspondente à emergência das multiplicidades no livro Bergsonismo; o segundo, correspondente à elaboração de uma teoria das multiplicidades, propriamente deleuziana, presente em Diferença e Repetição e; por fim, em uma projeção prático-política a que o conceito é alçado em Mil Platôs. / [en] A central question runs through the Gilles Deleuze s philosophy, the determination of multiplicities in themselves: what they are; what the substance is; their elements; the type of relationship they imply; their singular reality and their events. Our intention was to explore this issue the mapping of three fundamental registers: the first corresponds to the emergency of multiplicities in the Bergsonism s book; the second corresponds to the elaboration of a theory of multiplicities, properly deleuzian, present in Difference and Repetition and, finally, in its pratical-political projection to which the concept is raised in a Thousand Plateaus.

La Géophilosophie est un concept tardif dans l’oeuvre de Deleuze et Guattari, et bien qu’il s’applique au dernier livre qu’ils ont écrit ensemble « Qu´est-ce que la Philosophie ? », il s’agit d’une notion qui enveloppe leurs principales créations conceptuelles et circonscrit la période de « Capitalisme et schizophrénie », tout en dialoguant avec des notions et des moments distincts de l’oeuvre des auteurs. Sous la rubrique de cette notion, la philosophie se définit selon le rapport entre un plan d’immanence qu’il s’agira de définir et d’un milieu immanent et social constituant une conjonction de relations variables entre le territoire et la terre. Ainsi l’acte de penser ne gravite-t-il pas dans l’orbite des catégories du sujet et de l’objet, mais concerne un milieu intensif et contingent qui, tout en composant une milieu de circonstances extérieures, délimite un champ de connexions et frontières, de relations multiples et de devenirs, qui contournent le molaire et le moléculaire en établissant un régime d’échange, de capture et de surcodage de codes. Selon ce tracé, la pensée et les concepts invoquent un “ dehors”, un devenir moléculaire, que Deleuze et Guattari analysent en utilisant les concepts de devenirs-animaux et imperceptibles. Ce sont ces concepts que nous cherchons à expliquer, dans la mesure où ils explorent le caractère géophilosophique de la pensée, dans son rapport aux concepts de territoire et d’agencements. Nous entendons en délinéer les connexions, les ramifications hétérogènes et rhizomatiques qui suivent des lignes intensives en conjurant des forces et des mouvements de la terre, et qui opèrent par des mouvements diagrammatiques, géodésie et déterritorialisation. En effet, une cartographie des déplacements, directions et chemins circonscrivant la carte d’une géographie agitée par des lignes de fuite, des longitudes et des lattitudes est configurée. Ces conditions définissent le plan d’immanence de la pensée, de sa déterritorialisation et de sa reterritorialisation. / Geophilosophy is a lag concept in Deleuze and Guattari’s work, and besides its can be applied at the last book in partnership « Qu´est-ce que la Philosophie ? », it is a notion that involves their main conceptual creations, circumscribing the period of Capitalisme et schizophrénie, but in dialogue with distincts notions and moments of both autors work. Under the heading of the notion, philosophy consecrates the conexion of a absolut immanence plan derivative of a social and immanent environment that constitutes the conjunction of variable relations between the territory and the earth. This way, the act of thinking doesn’t gravitate in the orbit of the categories of suject and object, but concerns to a intensive and contingent environment, that, setting an ambience of external circunstances, delimits a field of conexions and borders, of multiple relations and becomings that skirts the molar and the molecular, establishing a system of change, capture and overcoding of the codes. In this route, the thought and the concepts invocate an « outside », a molecular becoming, animal and inconspicuous becomings that settle the territory and the assemblages, profiling conexions, heterogeneous and rhizomatic ramifications that follow by intensive lines, conjuring forces and movements of earth that operates by diagrammatic movements, geodey and deterritorialization. Setting up, in effect, a cartography of displacements, directions and pathways that circumscribes the map of a geography agitated by creepage, longitudes and latitudes, being these, by the way, the conditions of the absolut immanence plan of thinking, of its deterritorialization and reterritorialization. / A Geofilosofia é um conceito tardio na obra de Deleuze e Guattari e, embora se aplique aoúltimo livro em parceria, Qu´est-ce que la Philosophie ?, trata-se de uma noção queenvolve suas principais criações conceituais, circunscrevendo o período de Capitalisme etschizophrénie, mas dialogando com noções e momentos distintos da obra dos autores. Soba rubrica da noção, a filosofia consagra a conexão de um plano de imanência absolutoderivado de um meio imanente e social que constitui a conjunção de relações variáveisentre o território e a terra. Assim, o ato de pensar não gravita sob a órbita das categoriassujeito e objeto, mas concerne a um meio intensivo e contingente, que, compondo umaambiência de circunstâncias externas, demarca um campo de conexões e fronteiras derelações múltiplas e devires que contornam o molar e o molecular, estabelecendo umregime de troca, captura e sobrecodificação dos códigos. Nesse traçado, o pensamento e osconceitos invocam um “fora”, um devir molecular, devires animais e imperceptíveis quepovoam o território e os agenciamentos, perfilham conexões, ramificações heterogêneas erizomáticas que seguem por linhas intensivas, conjurando forças e movimentos da terra queoperam por movimentos diagramáticos, geodésia e desterritorialização. Configura-se, comefeito, uma cartografia dos deslocamentos, direções e trajetos que circunscreve o mapa deuma geografia agitada por linhas de fuga, longitudes e latitudes, sendo essas, portanto, ascondições do plano de imanência absoluto do pensamento, de sua desterritorialização ereterritorialização.

Since the end of the American Folk Revival, in the late 1960s, folk festivals have undergone a dramatic change. Concurrently, folk music was transformed through capital from its origins as national folkloric music to a successful popular music genre. As professional folk music emerged during the late 1950s and 1960s many young people began to get involved. This involvement, often in the promotion of community oriented folk music events, set the stage for the development of independent community folk music clubs and festivals. These two trends (folk music as cultural commodity and folk music as community expression) flowed through one another sweeping away nationalist folk music and leaving an open space. During the 1970s, political and social changes were occurring across North America. The emergence of what Michael Foucault called biopolitics began to change how young people related to the idea of folk music and to the general field of political action. At the same time, organized leftwing political groups, many of which developed out of early 20th century political movements, broke down or splintered into many smaller groups. Some disenchanted political activists turned towards cultural programming as an outlet for their political desire. Along side this, American draft dodgers and Canadian back-to-the-landers moved, from the south and the east, into the Canadian west. Out of this diverse social energy developed urban and rural folk music festivals. Until now folk music festivals in western Canada have not been systematically surveyed nor has their operation been theorized as a mode of creative production. This work develops a historically grounded approach to folk music as a means of social production and challenges the idea that folk music is only a music genre. I conclude, using a theoretical approach developed by Deleuze and Guattari, that contemporary folk music festivals make use of social capital to establish a folk music assemblage. This assemblage provides an alternative, non-centralized, and increasingly global alternative for the flow of music capital. Folk music is no longer a style of music but a mode of doing business in music that is socially oriented and politically and economically potent. / Music

This thesis addresses the question posed to ecocriticism by Dana Phillips in his iconoclastic The Truth of Ecology: Nature, Culture, and Literature in America: “What is the truth of ecology, insofar as this truth is addressed by literature and art?” by examining how ecocriticism has, or has failed to, contextualize ecocritical discourse within an ecological framework. After reviewing the current state of ecocriticism and its relationship with environmentalism, the thesis suggests that both rely on the same outmoded, inaccurate and essentially inutile ecological concepts and language, and argues for a new approach to ecocriticism that borrows its concepts and language from the geophilosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. The thesis concludes with a reassessment of the work of Barry Lopez, showing how his fiction, when viewed through the lens of geophilosophy, does not support essentialist notions of nature, but rather works to articulate a world of multiplicities, and new modes of becoming.

This thesis addresses the question posed to ecocriticism by Dana Phillips in his iconoclastic The Truth of Ecology: Nature, Culture, and Literature in America: “What is the truth of ecology, insofar as this truth is addressed by literature and art?” by examining how ecocriticism has, or has failed to, contextualize ecocritical discourse within an ecological framework. After reviewing the current state of ecocriticism and its relationship with environmentalism, the thesis suggests that both rely on the same outmoded, inaccurate and essentially inutile ecological concepts and language, and argues for a new approach to ecocriticism that borrows its concepts and language from the geophilosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. The thesis concludes with a reassessment of the work of Barry Lopez, showing how his fiction, when viewed through the lens of geophilosophy, does not support essentialist notions of nature, but rather works to articulate a world of multiplicities, and new modes of becoming.