The Western contemporary notion of the secular family seems to be supported by the following contradictory premises: on the one hand, the nuclear family is supposed to be based on love (between husband and wife; between parents and children) that is expected to last ‘till death do us part'. On the other hand, what ought to last – in the relation between a restricted set of love objects – is also known to be an elusive and uncontrollable affect(ion), that seems to arise 'out of nowhere', and to disappear as quickly. Further, the popular understanding of a loving relation goes hand in hand with a supporting injunction to possess an object of love, which finds its ideological support in the contemporary ethos of Capital's relations of production/reproduction, particularly in the notion of private property. Several consequences ensue from these contradictions. Firstly, love gets compromised by fixing it on an extremely restricted set of chosen members and becomes something one needs to 'work at' (in case it 'fails') instead of a spontaneously arising force. It eventually becomes a 'promise' that is meant always to fail; however, it generates a whole spectrum of industries that successfully cash in on the idea of love, by selling love in what looks to be an unlimited variety of commodity forms (products, service, affective services, etc.). Secondly, the notion of love that is meant to correspond to a possession of its object is a product as well as producer. This notion of... [to full text] / Šiuolaikinė dominuojanti Vakarų šeimos samprata yra grindžiama darant prieštaringas prielaidas. Iš vienos pusės, 'branduolinė šeima' turėtų būti paremta meile grįstais santykiais tarp žmonos ir vyro ir tarp vaikų ir tėvų - iš kurių yra tikimasi kad ji (meilė) turi tęstis iki 'kol mirtis išskirs'. Iš kitos pusės, ko yra reikalaujama ilgalaikio tęstinumo - tarp apribotų santykių su išskirtiniais (leistinais) meilės objektais – yra afekto, kuris pasižymi nenuspėjamumu, praeinamumu ir nepasidavimu racionaliai kontrolei. Ji (meilė) - kaip liaudies išmintis patvirtintų - kaip greitai ir nenuspėjamai 'ateina' taip pat greitai ir nenuspėjamai 'išeina'. Be to, populiarus meilės supratimas yra palaikomas papildoma reakcine geismo forma - pasisavinti, 'privatizuoti' meilės objektą, – atrandanti atgarsį ir palaikimą, šiuolaikinių kapitalistinių santykių, grindžiamų privačia nuosavybę, etose. Šie šeimos koncepto prieštaravimai turi bent kelias svarbias pasekmes. Visų pirmą, meilė yra sukompromituojama nurodant konkrečius ir simboliškai griežtai apribotus šeimos subjektus kuriuos yra leistina 'mylėti' ir tapatintis. Nepatenkinant šio meilės reikalavimo, 'meilės' pora yra skatinama 'dirbti' su savo santykiais , tikintis jog meilė gali būti produkuota, o ne kylanti iš spontaniško afekto. Galiausiai, meilės sąvoka tampa 'pažadu', kuris yra pasmerktas būti pastoviai neįgyvendinamas, bet kuris, tuo pačiu sukuria nišą visam spektrui kapitalistinių industrijų kurti pridėtinę vertę... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

This thesis investigates in which ways Samuel R. Delany’s novel Hogg challenge the discourse of normality as stipulated, supported and maintained by the capitalist Oedipal repression of desire. Drawing from Deleuze and Guattari’s theory of the Anti-Oedipus, this thesis explores how Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of desire as a free and productive force can be seen as a disruptive element in a society that relies on repression of the subject for its stability. Furthermore, this thesis explores how the novel questions the understanding of civilisation being dependent on the individual’s submission to the Oedipus triangulation and in extension the Oedipal capitalist separation between the public and the private sphere. Ultimately, the main argument claims that Oedipal repression of desire only allows desire to invest in a restricted number of representations, making other identities than the heteronormative suspicious or invisible.  Hogg depicts a society where capitalism commodifies everything, and need the Oedipal subject to ensure its stability. The characters in the novel that do not subject themselves to the capitalist discourse escape the subjection to the Oedipal triangulation, and are thus free to invest their desire in any way they choose, primarily in non-heterosexual and salirophiliac activities. These characters can be seen as schizoid subjects that are constantly threatening to expose the fragility of the social structure by embodying a contrast to the hegemonic discourse and therefore constantly question its authority as main creator of reason and reality.

Au sein de la pensée de Deleuze, la poésie d'Antonin Artaud apparaît comme la ligne de fuite par excellence à partir de laquelle tout le foisonnement conceptuel deleuzien s'articule. Artaud est en effet celui qui brise l'image de la pensée – ou ce que nous voulons dire habituellement par " penser " en philosophie – en refusant son innéité et son universalité, c'est-à-dire la cogitatio natura universalis. Car pour Artaud comme pour Deleuze, le plus souvent, la pensée s'affronte à son problème véritable, qui est son impouvoir ou son impossibilité. Ainsi, la première partie de la thèse s'attaque à la compréhension de la destitution de l'image de la pensée dans Différence et répétition de Deleuze, à partir de l'idée de " génital inné " d'Artaud dans la Correspondance avec Jacques Rivière. Si l'image de la pensée ne dit rien du processus de penser, de quelle logique sommes-nous capables ? Au travers de la découverte de la logique paradoxale déployée dans les paradoxes de Logique du sens de Deleuze, il s'agira de penser le rapprochement entre Artaud et Nietzsche. L'axe principal de cette partie est la critique du jugement menée par Artaud. Enfin, jeté dans les paradoxes de la vie, la troisième partie envisage le grand impensé de la philosophie qu'est le corps : en effet, de quel corps sommes-nous capables ? L'enjeu, de l'impossibilité de penser à la question du corps - rapprochant L'Ethique de Spinoza du corps sans organes d'Artaud - est bien de renouer la pensée avec la vie, selon le projet du Gai savoir de Nietzsche et qu'Artaud ne cesse de reformuler dès ses premiers écrits. L'impossibilité de penser dit non seulement la séparation d'avec la vie, mais aussi l'impensable qu'est le corps : en effet, que dire de notre propre corps, tel que nous le vivons ? Dans quelle mesure la création de concepts en rhizome dans Mille Plateaux de Deleuze et Guattari explore-t-elle le corps sans organes d'Artaud, ce corps vécu qui reste encore mystérieux pour la pensée ? Artaud souhaitait qu'on l'aime non pas pour son œuvre mais pour sa vie, témoignant d'une grande santé contre un monde malade : l'horizon de l'impossibilité de penser est alors la pensée blessée et profonde assumant la vie elle-même dans toute son opacité. / In the thought of Deleuze, the poetry of Antonin Artaud seems like the line of convergence par excellence from which all the Deleuzian proliferation of concepts are developed. Indeed, Artaud is the person who shatters the image of thought – or what we usually mean by " thinking " in philosophy – rejecting its innateness and universality, in other words, the cogitatio natura universalis. Because, for both Artaud and Deleuze, thought is most often confronted by its real problem – its powerlessness or its impossibility. So the first part of the thesis deals with understanding the dismissal of the image of thought in Deleuze's Difference and Repetition, from Artaud's notion of " génital inné " [innate sexuality] in the Correspondence with Jacques Rivière. If the image of thought says nothing about the process of thinking, of what logic are we capable ? Through the discovery of the paradoxical logic deployed in the paradoxes in Deleuze's Logic of Sense, it is a matter of thinking about the connection between Artaud and Nietzsche. The main thrust of this section is a critique of the judgement made by Artaud. Lastly, thrown into the paradoxes of life, the third part considers the great non thought of philosophy, that is the body : indeed, of what body are we capable ? The challenge, the impossibility of thinking about the question of the body - comparing Spinoza's Ethics and Artaud's body without organs - is to reconnect thought with life, in accordance with the intention of Neitzsche's Gai saber [The Gay Science] and that Artaud did not cease to revise from his earliest writings. The impossibility of thought implies not only a separation from life, but also the unthinkable that is the body: indeed, does this mean talk of our own body as we experience it ? To what extent does the creation of a rhizome of concepts in A Thousand Plateaux by Deleuze and Guattari explore Artaud's body without organs, the body experienced that still remains mysterious for thought ? Artaud hoped that he would be loved not for his work, but for his life, testifying to a great health against a sick world: the prospect of the impossibility of thinking is then thought wounded and profound, taking on a life of its own in all its opacity.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis is a personal, poststructuralist study of the researcher’s mapping of the self. The researcher refers to her art practice as an action of research and at the same time, a process of reality production. The images that are created through the art making processes, feeds back into reality. The argument for the production of reality images, relies specifically on the non-representational ‘model’ of Deleuze and Guattari. The foundation of this study is based on a theoretical and practical study of the role of personal space and objects in this complex network of production. This thesis argues for the consideration of self as an ‘open’ map and to expand the fiction and idea of representation. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis is persoonlike, poststrukturalistiese ondersoek na die navorser se kartering van die self. Die navorser verwys veral na haar kunspraktyk as aksie van ondersoek en tergelykertyd ’n proses van werklikheidsproduksie. Die beelde wat deur die kunsmaakpraktyk/-proses geskep word, voer terug na die werklikheid. Die argument vir die produksie van werklikheidsbeelde steun veral op Deleuze en Guattari se nie-representasionele ‘model’. Teoretiese en praktiese studie van die rol van persoonlike ruimtes en objekte in hierdie komplekse produksienetwerk vorm die grondslag waaruit die studie voortspruit. In hierdie tesis word uiteindelik geargumenteer vir die beskouing van die self as ‘oop’ kaart ten einde die fiksie en idee van representasie oop te maak en uit te brei. kartering, objekte, roetes, versamelings, werklikheidsbeelde, poststrukturalisme, beelde, tekening