There is great potential for the work of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari in the realm of queer theory, and specifically discussions of gender variance. Their critique of psychiatry, capitalism and the unitary subject in Anti-Oedipus (1983) fits well within the current discussions surrounding transgender and genderqueer experiences including Gender Identity Disorder classifications, the commodification of queer culture, and the challenges put forth to our the "modern subject" by the fluidity of genderqueer. Yet strangely, there has not yet been an explicit, in-depth Deleuzoguattarian ontological reading of genderqueer. This thesis helps to foster such discussions by focusing on Deleuzoguattarian understandings of subjectivity, bodies and politics and how they relate to both gender and genderqueer. Through a method of involution, gender is transformed into molecular gender, into a productive, immanently relational, multiplicitous gender that has substantial implications for gender(queer) politics and activism. / Graduate

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study comprises a philosophical investigation into the development of a non-representational resistance against the State, with specific focus on the role of the imagination in both repression and the struggle for freedom. Using Deleuze & Guattari’s non-representasional ontology, the researcher argues that Deleuze and Guattari’s ontological system can be described as an ontological anarchy, which supplies us with tactics of resistance that strongly deviates from traditional Representational or Revolutionary models of resistance. Building on a discussion of Situationism and Hakim Bey’s T.A.Z, the argument is made that these non-representasional resistive tactics could ‘open’ the category of art up to a whole network of creative and life practices – a transformation that has the ability to free art as well as the everyday. In stead of refecting back on a supposed ‘background’ Reality, this resistance relies on the ontologically anarchic practice of reality production. The idea of the non-ordinary or peak experience, assosiated with sorcery, plays a crucial role in this production process, and the argument is made for the use the of these experiences to create a lasting peak experience, ultimately constituting a shared level of peak intensity between people that the researcher calls ‘the revolution of the imagination’. Key words: ontology, anarchy, anarchism, the State, resistance, revolution, imagination, complexity, ontology of art, poststructuralism, Representation, non-representationality, peak experience, sorcery, the everyday, Situationism, psychogeography, geophilosopy, phenomenology. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie is ʼn filosofiese ondersoek na die ontwikkeling van ʼn nie-representasionele weerstand teen die Staat, met besondere klem op die rol van die verbeelding in die onderdrukking van, sowél as die stryd om vryheid. Deur middel van Deleuze & Guattari se nie-representasionele ontologie word daar tussen Representasie, wat met die Staat as komplekse en gesamentlik geproduseerde sosiale konfigurasie verband hou, en nie-representasionaliteit, wat met anargisme saamhang, onderskei. Die navorser voer aan dat Deleuze & Guattari se ontologiese sisteem as ʼn ontologiese anargie beskryf kan word wat ons van weerstandstaktieke voorsien wat sterk van tradisionele Representasionele of Rewolusionêre weerstandsmodelle afwyk. Na aanleiding van ʼn bespreking van Situasionisme en Hakim Bey se T.A.Z word daar betoog dat hierdie nie-representasionele weerstandstaktieke, die kategorie van kuns kan ‘oopmaak’ tot ʼn hele netwerk van ander kreatiewe en lewenspraktyke – ʼn transformasie wat terselfdertyd kuns én die alledaagse kan bevry. In plaas daarvan om terug te kaats op ʼn veronderstelde ‘agtergrond’- Werklikheid, gaan dié stryd om die ontologies anargiese praktyk van werklikheidsproduksie. Die idee van nie-gewone ervaring, of die spitservaring, wat met towery geassosieer word, speel ʼn sentrale rol in hierdie produksie, en daar word aangevoer dat dit gebruik kan word om van álle ervarings ʼn verlengde spitservaring te maak – ʼn gedeelde vlak van intensiteit onder mense wat die navorser ‘die rewolusie van die verbeelding’ noem. Trefwoorde: ontologie, anargie, anargisme, die Staat, weerstand, rewolusie, verbeelding, kompleksiteit, ontologie van kuns, poststrukturalisme, Representasie, nie-representasionaliteit, spitservaring, towery, die alledaagse, Situasionisme, psigogeografie, geofilosofie, fenomenologie.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / Please refer to full text for abstract.