Deleuze and the Author by Niall KENNEDY Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements of Kingston University For
Deleuze and the Author By Niall KENNEDY Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Kingston University for the award of PhD. October 2016. Acknowledgements. I wish to thank my supervisors, Professor Peter Hallward and Professor Eric Alliez, for their invaluable guidance, advice and support. This dissertation would not have been possible without the support of Catherine and Dermot Kennedy, to whom I owe a very great deal. I also wish to thank Maire Kennedy, Sorcha Nic Lochlainn, and Caoimhe Nic Lochlainn for support, advice, comfort and reassurance. This dissertation is dedicated to James P. and Mamie Kennedy, and to Daniel Joseph and Margaret McLaughlin. Abstract This thesis argues that Gilles Deleuze, as philosopher, reader, and critic, recognised the central importance of a defined authorial subjectivity, closely associated with a philosophical or intellectual project, and that his analyses of philosophy, literature, visual art and cinema were shaped and determined by his recognition of that authority. In this respect, my reading challenges those critics who find in the work of Deleuze an assault on ‘author-centric’ interpretations of texts, and more generally on the concept of a unified self, and which uphold experimentation on the part of the reader or critic rather than interpretation. I argue that Deleuze has a coherent and meaningful conception of an author as a consciousness which persists through time, learns, plans and makes projects, differentiates itself from the work of other authors, is inspired and creative, takes positions in relation to the inheritance of artistic and philosophical traditions, and which is capable of entering into collaboration with others.
[Show full text]