Gilles Deleuze
Frida Beckman
Gilles Deleuze, the person and philosopher, was both singular and multifaceted. Frida Beckman traces Deleuze’s remarkable intellectual journey, mapping the encounters from which his life and work emerged. She considers how his life and philosophical developments resonate with historical, political and philosophical events, from the Second World War to the student uprisings in the 1960s, the opening of the experimental University of Paris VIII and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Although less of a public figure than many of his contemporaries, Deleuze’s life and philosophy are bound up with his numerous friendships, collaborations and disputes with several of the period’s most influential thinkers, as well as his connections with writers, artists and film scholars.
Beckman considers the events, moods and intensities that were generated by this multiplicity of encounters throughout his life. The book follows Deleuze from the salons to which he was invited as a young student through his popularity as a young teacher to the development of the rich phases of his philosophical work. While resisting the idea of ‘Deleuzians’, the book also reviews a post-Deleuzian legacy and the influence of this extraordinary thinker on contemporary philosophy.
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About Frida Beckman
Reviews for Gilles Deleuze
Charles W Stivale, Distinguished Professor of French at Wayne State University
Gilles Deleuze is now recognized to be among the most important French philosophers of the 20th Century. His desire for privacy and his critique of the individual subject present particular difficulties for the biographer, however. Frida Beckman masters these difficulties admirably. Drawing upon a wide range of critical discussions of Deleuzes work as well as the recently published edition of Deleuzes Lettres et Autres Textes, Beckman skillfully weaves together a narrative that moves between Deleuzes life and what he called a life. Along the way, many of Deleuzes most important concepts are clarified and critically analyzed in a way that will make this Critical Life both a valuable resource for scholars and an excellent introduction to his life and work.
Alan D. Schrift, F. Wendell Miller Professor of Philosophy, Grinnell College
Beckman draws from a stunning array of primary and secondary texts, interviews, and letters to offer a skillful and faithful study.
Charles W. Stivale, Distinguished Professor of French at Wayne State University
Skillfully weaves together a narrative that moves between Deleuzes life and what he called a life. Along the way, many of Deleuzes most important concepts are clarified and critically analyzed in a way that will make this Critical Life both a valuable resource for scholars and an excellent introduction to his life and work.
Alan D. Schrift, F. Wendell Miller Professor of Philosophy, Grinnell College