This dissertation follows two interrelated lines of inquiry. The first, I formulate as follows: (1) How, historically speaking, has the discourse of literary criticism thought the book? How has it represented the book? Used the book? Put simply, what has the book become in the hands of the critic? Though, of course, answers to such questions will vary widely—especially as they intersect with related matters concerning the critic, herself, and what Henry Sussman refers to as the perceived “task of the critic”—it is my contention that the discourse of literary criticism remains unified by its inability to extricate itself from what I call the transcendent orientation to literature: an orientation that has both ancient and modern coordinates. In Part 1 of the dissertation, I map criticism’s ongoing historical affair with transcendence—an affair that begins as far back as the Platonic dialogues, but that can be traced right up through the twentieth century, in and through the work of any number of critics, and many prominent schools of literary critical thought. I, then, formulate the second of my two lines of inquiry as follows: (2) How might the materialist critic, imbued by Deleuzean sensibilities, think the book anew? And, by extension, how might the materialist re-think the role or task of the critic? In Part 2, I shift the focus from the transcendent to the immanent (or immanentist) orientation; that is, from the logic of representation to what philosopher Gilles Deleuze—a prominent voice within this dissertation—labels “the logic of sensation”; also, from fixed essences (i.e., fixed laws, identities) to potential powers; from being to becoming; from the regulated and scientized practices of the institutional critic (spawning predictable results) to the “co-creative” encounters of the critic-artisan (unleashing pure potentials from the book). In short, Part 2 of the dissertation explores the question of how the book opens up to its own becomings—i.e., its own difference, its own transformation. To that end, I will enter into a number of co-creative relations of my own with various works of American literature (including, Kerouac’s On the Road, Melville’s Moby-Dick, Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage, and William Gass’s On Being Blue).

This dissertation follows two interrelated lines of inquiry. The first, I formulate as follows: (1) How, historically speaking, has the discourse of literary criticism thought the book? How has it represented the book? Used the book? Put simply, what has the book become in the hands of the critic? Though, of course, answers to such questions will vary widely—especially as they intersect with related matters concerning the critic, herself, and what Henry Sussman refers to as the perceived “task of the critic”—it is my contention that the discourse of literary criticism remains unified by its inability to extricate itself from what I call the transcendent orientation to literature: an orientation that has both ancient and modern coordinates. In Part 1 of the dissertation, I map criticism’s ongoing historical affair with transcendence—an affair that begins as far back as the Platonic dialogues, but that can be traced right up through the twentieth century, in and through the work of any number of critics, and many prominent schools of literary critical thought. I, then, formulate the second of my two lines of inquiry as follows: (2) How might the materialist critic, imbued by Deleuzean sensibilities, think the book anew? And, by extension, how might the materialist re-think the role or task of the critic? In Part 2, I shift the focus from the transcendent to the immanent (or immanentist) orientation; that is, from the logic of representation to what philosopher Gilles Deleuze—a prominent voice within this dissertation—labels “the logic of sensation”; also, from fixed essences (i.e., fixed laws, identities) to potential powers; from being to becoming; from the regulated and scientized practices of the institutional critic (spawning predictable results) to the “co-creative” encounters of the critic-artisan (unleashing pure potentials from the book). In short, Part 2 of the dissertation explores the question of how the book opens up to its own becomings—i.e., its own difference, its own transformation. To that end, I will enter into a number of co-creative relations of my own with various works of American literature (including, Kerouac’s On the Road, Melville’s Moby-Dick, Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage, and William Gass’s On Being Blue).

Deleuze&#039 / s Struggle Against Transcendence and Criticisms About It TIBIK, Kamuran M.S., Department of Philosophy Supervisor: Prof.Dr. Yasin Ceylan December,2006, 128 pages In this study, I first studied the undecidability of transcendence and immanence. Then, I studied the demarcation problem between transcendence and immanence with its results in philosophy. Thirdly, I touched on the idea of the death of philosophy in relation to this demarcation problem. Fourthly, I tried to present Deleuze&#039 / s dualist approach to concepts and I also studied Hume&#039 / s effect on the emergence of this dualist approach. As the fifth, I tried to relate the demarcation problem to ethics, concepts and the future of philosophy. Finally, I presented questions and criticisms about both Hume&#039 / s and Deleuze&#039 / s views on immanence and ethics.

The main objective of this master&rsquo / s thesis is to analyze the place assigned to human subjectivity by French philosophers Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze. In order to fulfil the requirements of this objective, what is focused on is their shared critique which is exercised against the traditional conceptions of humanity and subjectivity. Through the thesis, first Foucault&rsquo / s analyses which demonstrate that universal man as a construction emerges as an effect of discursive practices and power relations, and his archaeological method that illustrates knowledge process is not dependent on transcendental consciousness are explained and discussed. Then it is argued that Deleuzian philosophy of becoming which does not submit to any transcendent unity that governs experience is an actual alternative to subject-centered understandings of the world. Throughout the course of arguments it is emphasized that according to both Foucault and Deleuze the human subject is an effect of network type relations that occur in a non-subjective fashion.

Selected aspects of Nicholas of Cusa's cosmology and anthropology This thesis targets selected topics of theology of creation and of man, that is, theological cosmology and anthropology in the work of a Renaissance philosopher, theologian, mathematician and scientist Nicholas of Cusa. I shall first introduce Cusanus' curriculum vitae, it's historical context and basic characteristics of theological anthropology in the work of Cusanus. After this, I shall present in greater detail selected topics of his mathematical theology, including historical context of this specific discourse on God, world and man using language of mathematics. This includes mathematical description of both created world and of theological reality, e.g. God's transcendence and immanence, the place of man in the universe, or the role of universe which has a mediating role between God and man in the works of Cusanus. Mathematical language used by Cusanus is part of a wide stream of Neoplatonist philosophical and theological tradition. Cusanus is inspired not only by pre-Christian philosophical traditions (Pythagorean school, Plotinus' concept of One), but also by Greek patristic writers like Gregory of Nyssa, Maximus the Confessor, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. In his concept of "great conjecture" Cusanus presents a model of...