Deleuze and the Diagram
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Deleuze and the Diagram 9781441115607_Pre_Final_txt_print.indd i 3/30/2012 6:03:20 PM Continuum Studies in Continental Philosophy Continuum Studies in Continental Philosophy is a major monograph series from Continuum. The series features fi rst-class scholarly research monographs across the fi eld of Continental philosophy. Each work makes a major contribution to the fi eld of philosophical research. Adorno’s Concept of Life , Alastair Morgan Badiou, Marion and St Paul , Adam Miller Being and Number in Heidegger’s Thought , Michael Roubach Deleuze and Guattari , Fadi Abou-Rihan Deleuze and the Genesis of Representation , Joe Hughes Deleuze and the Unconscious , Christian Kerslake Deleuze, Guattari and the Production of the New , edited by Simon O’Sullivan and Stephen Zepke Derrida , Simon Morgan Wortham Derrida and Disinterest , Sean Gaston Derrida: Profanations , Patrick O’Connor The Domestication of Derrida , Lorenzo Fabbri Encountering Derrida , edited by Simon Morgan Wortham and Allison Weiner Foucault’s Heidegger , Timothy Rayner Gadamer and the Question of the Divine , Walter Lammi Heidegger and a Metaphysics of Feeling , Sharin N. Elkholy Heidegger and Aristotle , Michael Bowler Heidegger and Logic , Greg Shirley Heidegger and Nietzsche , Louis P. Blond Heidegger and Philosophical Atheology , Peter S. Dillard Heidegger Beyond Deconstruction , Michael Lewis Heidegger, Politics and Climate Change , Ruth Irwin Heidegger’s Early Philosophy , James Luchte Idealism and Existentialism , Jon Stewart Kant, Deleuze and Architectonics , Edward Willatt Levinas and Camus , Tal Sessler Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology , Kirk M. Besmer Nietzsche, Nihilism and the Philosophy of the Future , edited by Jeffrey Metzger Nietzsche’s Ethical Theory , Craig Dove Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra , edited by James Luchte The Philosophy of Exaggeration , Alexander Garcia Düttmann Sartre’s Phenomenology , David Reisman Time and Becoming in Nietzsche’s Thought , Robin Small Who’s Afraid of Deleuze and Guattari? Gregg Lambert Žižek and Heidegger , Thomas Brockelman Žižek’s Dialectics , Fabio Vighi 9781441115607_Pre_Final_txt_print.indd ii 3/30/2012 6:03:21 PM Deleuze and the Diagram Aesthetic Threads in Visual Organization Jakub Zdebik Continuum Studies in Continental Philosophy 9781441115607_Pre_Final_txt_print.indd iii 3/30/2012 6:03:21 PM Continuum International Publishing Group The Tower Building 80 Maiden Lane 11 York Road Suite 704 London SE1 7NX New York NY 10038 www.continuumbooks.com © Jakub Zdebik 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. The author has asserted his/her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identifi ed as Author of this work. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. E ISBN: 978-1-4411-7872-5 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Zdebik, Jakub. Deleuze and the diagram : aesthetic threads in visual organization / Jakub Zdebik. pages cm. – (Continuum studies in Continental philosophy) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4411-1560-7 (hardcover) – ISBN 978-1-4411-7872-5 (ebook (pdf) 1. Deleuze, Gilles, 1925–1995. 2. Aesthetics. 3. Art and philosophy. I. Title. B2430.D454Z42 2012 194–dc23 2011049275 Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems Pvt Ltd, Chennai, India Printed and bound in Great Britain 9781441115607_Pre_Final_txt_print.indd iv 3/30/2012 6:03:22 PM For Barbara 9781441115607_Pre_Final_txt_print.indd v 3/30/2012 6:03:22 PM 9781441115607_Pre_Final_txt_print.indd vi 3/30/2012 6:03:22 PM Contents Acknowledgements viii Introduction: What Is a Diagram? 1 1. System 24 2. Black Line, White Surface 66 3. Gilles Deleuze’s Diagram (Complicated by a Comparison to Immanuel Kant’s Schema) 109 4. The Extraordinary Contraction 141 5. Skin, Aesthetics, Incarnation: Deleuze’s Diagram of Francis Bacon – An Epilogue 178 Conclusion 193 Notes 196 Bibliography 224 Index 231 9781441115607_Pre_Final_txt_print.indd vii 3/30/2012 6:03:22 PM Acknowledgements I would like to thank Daniel Vaillancourt and Calin Mihailescu for their invaluable guidance, feedback and encouragement. Gary Genosko has been tremendously helpful with his commentaries, insights and advice. Jonathan Murphy has been especially instrumental in the making of this book: his comments were constructive, patient and helpful. I would like to thank Andrew Pendakis for reading through the manuscript. Colette Stoeber edited the manuscript with precision and effi cacy and for this I thank her. I would like to thank Sarah Campbell, Colleen Coalter and Rachel Eisenhauer at Continuum for the opportunity to publish my work and for their support. Elżbieta, Zbigniew and Magda have always been there and supported me and for this I thank them. And, of course, I would like to thank most of all Barbara. Without her tireless and constant support this book would not have been possible. I am forever in your debt. Earlier versions of some chapters or chapter sections appeared in various journals. Permission to reprint was kindly granted by The Semiotic Review of Books , The Brock Review and ESC: English Studies in Canada . 9781441115607_Pre_Final_txt_print.indd viii 3/30/2012 6:03:23 PM Introduction: What Is a Diagram? A diagram is commonly understood as a drawing conveying information about something incorporeal. From the Greek diagramma , it means to mark out by lines, to draw – where dia is through, across, apart and graphein is to write. The diagram is defi ned as a geometrical fi gure used to illustrate the- orems. It can also be a sketch, a drawing or a plan that explains a thing by outlining its parts and their relationships – basically, delineating its inner workings. Finally, a diagram can be defi ned as a chart or a graph explain- ing or illustrating ideas and displaying statistics. A diagram can be seen in the form of three different types of drawings: a plan, a map and a graph (or a schema). A plan represents a building that is not yet built. A map represents terrains on which we have not yet trav- elled. A graph displays relations between variable quantities. No matter what form it takes as a representation, a diagram is a confi guration of lines, whether they are drawn or written. In a conceptual diagram, the lines marking out a space are abstract traits. The diagram thus does not represent, but rather maps out possibilities prior to their appearance, their representation. This new dimension lies between the visible and the articulable, and therefore traits are not exactly pictures or written language. A conceptual diagram is not like a fl ow chart, for example, which represents economic fl uctuations in a schematic vis- ual shorthand. The diagram does not resemble particular elements in an imitative way; rather, it displays abstract functions that make up a system. The diagram, then, is the dynamic, fl uctuating process occurring between static structures. As a concept, it describes the fl exible, elastic, incorpo- real functions before they settle into a defi nitive form. The diagrammatic process could be imagined as a physical state or system being atomized into incorporeal abstract traits and then reconfi gured into another state or system. The fi rst and second system will be different, but their abstract functioning will be the same. The concept of the diagram revamps hylemorphic theory – the push and pull between form and matter – as well as the relationship between con- tent and expression, the connection between thought and image, and the difference between representation and non-representation. It values the 9781441115607_Intro_Final_txt_print.indd 1 4/2/2012 12:50:47 PM 2 Deleuze and the Diagram unformed, the state of fl ux, the dynamic, the movement towards actualiza- tion. It also deals with organization, forces at work in social and cultural constructs; it is a way to travel from one system to another. The diagram allows a glimpse of the state that comes before the formation of an object, and of what goes into its formation. In a cultural object such as a painting, for example, the theory of the diagram offers something more than typical hermeneutics because it searches for essential states of abstraction within the actual fi guration of an image. It also shows the far-reaching connec- tions at play in a work of art, and the multiple parts that come to work in its assemblage. The theory of the diagram is based on a philosophical con- cept devised by Gilles Deleuze, who was inspired by Michel Foucault. This chapter is divided into two major parts. First, I will look at two defi ni- tions of the diagram as they appear in Deleuze’s Foucault . After a brief sum- mary of these passages, I will show how architecture and cartography are fundamental to the conceptualization of the diagram. In the second part, I will pinpoint the locations of the diagram in Deleuze’s corpus. This is impor- tant because Deleuze does not dedicate a single work to the diagram. His presentation of the diagram remains indefi nitely unformed – from its first to last appearance in Deleuze’s corpus, the diagram changes shape. First mentioned in an essay on Foucault titled ‘Écrivain non: un nouveau car- tographe’ (1975), it then appears in A Thousand Plateaus (1980) and Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation (1981) and is later developed in more detail in Foucault (1986). Taken all together, these texts seem to form a small system revolving around the notion of the diagram. And this system has a circular form: starting and looping back onto Foucault after a process of transfor- mation. By tracing the sources of the concept of the diagram, I will provide an introductory map of the diagram’s situation in Deleuze’s thought – and, by extension, this map will reveal the diagram’s characteristics.