Deleuze and Guattaris A Thousand Plateaus is one of the most inventive works of philosophy of the twentieth century, constructing a sustained argument for the need to develop a new model of thought.
Henry Somers-Hall provides a comprehensive reading of this master work as a philosophical text, drawing on the full range of their engagements within philosophy as well as disciplines such as anthropology, linguistics, political theory, economics, mathematics, musicology, literature and psychoanalysis. By interweaving these engagements into the structure of the argument itself, Somers-Hall shows how the rigorous philosophical core at the heart of the text opens out onto a novel politics of social organisation.
As well as an abundance of new research for those working within the field of philosophy, this book will be invaluable for those working in other disciplines who want to engage with the full force of Deleuze and Guattaris distinctive approach.
Arvustused
Henry Somers-Hall has written the book you despaired of needing because you knew it did not exist. Both a genuine interpretative feat and a uniquely valuable work of research, it will find a favored place in our minds, references, and shelves. -- Mary Beth Mader, University of Memphis Henry Somers-Hall has produced a masterful interpretation of Deleuze and Guattaris A Thousand Plateaus. By elucidating all the references and allusions that Deleuze and Guattari make in A Thousand Plateaus, Somers-Hall allows us to understand A Thousand Plateaus in a way that was never before possible. -- Leonard Lawlor, Penn State University A remarkable achievement. Somers-Halls lucid, detailed and illuminating commentary is the ideal companion for all readers of A Thousand Plateausboth neophytes and experts alikeand a fitting tribute to the riches of Deleuze and Guattaris singularly innovative and profound text. Highly recommended. -- Ronald Bogue, University of Georgia Somers-Hall has provided the clearest and most comprehensive, practically page-by-page explication of one of the most important recent works of political philosophy. Though by no means the last word, this is a state-of-the-art assessment that everyone interested in A Thousand Plateaus will want to consult and will surely benefit from. -- Eugene W. Holland, Ohio State University Reading A Thousand Plateaus performs an immense service for readers of Deleuze and Guattaris masterpiece. It undertakes a detailed explanation of the aims and content of every plateau, incorporating much of the background material mentioned in footnotes. It also outlines what is at stake metaphysically as well as politically. This book is an indispensable companion for any study of A Thousand Plateaus. -- Paul Patton, University of New South Wales
Acknowledgements
Note on Referencing
Introduction: Thinking As a Nomad
Readings of A Thousand Plateaus
Reading A Thousand Plateaus
Notes on the text
Metaphysical Introduction to A Thousand Plateaus
Introduction
The Sedentary Distribution
Criticisms of the Sedentary Distribution
The Nomadic Distribution
Change and the Diagram
The Countersignifying Regime of Signs
Conclusion
Political Introduction to A Thousand Plateaus
Introduction
Transcendental Illusion and Political Organisation
Molar and Molecular, Sedentary and Nomadic
Binding and Surplus Labour
The War Machine and Fascism
The Politics of the Line of Flight
Conclusion
1. Rhizome
1.1 Introduction (3-4)
1.2 The Root Book (5)
1.3 The Fascicular Root System (5-6)
1.4 Rhizome (6-7)
1.5 Principles of Connection and Heterogeneity (7-8)
1.6 Principle of Multiplicity (8-9)
1.7 Principle of Asignifying Rupture (9-12)
1.8 Principle of Cartography and Decalcomania (12-16)
1.9 The East and the West (18-21)
1.10 Conclusion (21-24)
2. One or Several Wolves
2.1 Introduction
2.2 The Unconscious (26-8)
2.3 The Wolf Man (28-30)
2.4 Crowds, Packs, and Multiplicities (30-35)
2.5 Conclusion: Multiplicities in practice (35-8)
3. The Geology of Morals
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Simondon and Individuation 123
3.3 Hjelmslev and Double Articulation (42-44)
3.4 Double Articulation and Strata (40-42)
3.5 Cuvier, Geoffroy, and Darwin (45-49)
3.6 Several Conclusions on Strata (49-57)
3.7 Content and Expression in Physical and Organic Strata (57-60)
3.8 The Linguistic Stratum (60-64)
3.9 Three Problems (64-71)
4. Postulates of Linguistics
4.1 Introduction: What are the Postulates of Linguistics?
4.2 Language is Informational and Communicational (75-85)
4.3 There is an Abstract Machine of Language That Does Not Appeal to Any
Extrinsic Factor (85-91)
4.4 There Are Constants or Universals of Language That Enable Us to Define It
as a Homogeneous System (92-100)
4.5 Language Can Be Scientifically Studied Only under the Conditions of a
Standard or Major Language (100-110)
5. On Several Regimes of Signs
5.1 Introduction
5.2 The Pre-Signifying Regime of Signs (117-8)
5.3 Faciality (111-115)
5.4 The Signifying Regime of Signs (115-117)
5.5 The Countersignifying Regime (118)
5.6 The Postsignifying Regime (119-134)
5.7 Mixtures and Transformations (134-140)
5.8 The Diagram (140-148)
6. How Do You Make Yourself a Body Without Organs?
6.1 Introduction (149-150)
6.2 Spinoza and Us (153)
6.3 Masochism (155-161)
6.4 Spinoza and Bodies without Organs (151-3)
6.5 The Cancerous BwO (162-4)
6.6 Conclusion: The BwO is an egg (164-6)
7. Faciality
7.1 Introduction (167-8)
7.2 Three False Origins of the Face (168-172)
7.3 Theorems of Deterritorialization, or Machinic Propositions (172-175)
7.4 Face and Landscape (175-186)
7.5 The Countersignifying Regime and the Face (186-191)
8. Three Novellas, or What Happened?
8.1 Introduction (192-195)
8.2 First Novella: In the Cage, Henry James (195-8)
8.3 Second Novella: The Crack-Up, F. Scott Fitzgerald (198-200)
8.4 Third Novella: The Story of the Abyss and the Spyglass, Pierrette
Fleutiaux (200-202)
8.5 Four Problems (202-207)
9. Micropolitics and Segmentarity
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Primitive and Civilised Segmentarity (209-213)
9.3 Masses and Classes (213-222)
9.4 Concrete Machines and Abstract Machines (222-227)
9.5 Four Problems (227-229)
9.6 Fascism (213-215, 229-231)
10. Becoming-Intense, Becoming-Animal, Becoming-Imperceptible
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Memories of a Moviegoer (233)
10.3 Memories of a Naturalist (233-7)
10.4 Memories of a Bergsonian (237-9)
10.5 Memories of a Sorcerer I (239-243)
10.6 Memories of a Sorcerer II (243-248)
10.7 Memories of a Sorcerer III (248-252)
10.8 Memories of a Theologian (252-3)
10.9 Memories of a Spinozist, I (253-256)
10.10 Memories of a Spinozist, II (256-260)
10.11 Memories of a Haecceity (260-5)
10.12 Memories of a Plan(e) Maker (265-272)
10.13 Memories of a Molecule (272-286)
10.14 Memories of the Secret (286-290)
10.15 Memories and Becomings, Points and locks (291-298)
10.16 Becoming-Music (299-309)
11. Of the Refrain
11.1 Introduction
11.2 The Refrain (310-312)
11.3 Milieus and Rhythms (313-314)
11.4 From Milieu to Territory (314-323)
11.5 Milieu, Territory, Cosmos (323-327)
11.6 Assemblages and the Problem of Consistency (327-337)
11.7 Classicism, Romanticism, and the Modern (337-347)
11.8 Painting and Music (347-50)
12. Treatise on Nomadology: The War Machine
12.1 Introduction
12.2 Dumézil, Go, and Kleist (351-6)
12.3 Clastres and Societies against States (357-361)
12.4 Nomad Science (361-374)
12.5 Noology and the Image of Thought (374-380)
12.7 Three Aspects of the War Machine (380-387)
12.8 Nomad existence necessarily implies the numerical elements of a war
machine (387-394)
12.9 Nomad existence has for affects the weapons of a war machine
(395-403)
12.10 How do the nomads invent or find their weapons? (403-415)
12.11 The War Machine and War (416-423)
13. Apparatus of Capture
13.1 Introduction
13.2 Dumézil and the Two Poles of the State (424-427)
13.3 Which Comes First? (427-437)
13.4 Capture (437-448)
13.5 The State and its Forms (448-460)
13.6 Axiomatics and the Present Day Situation (460-473)
14. The Smooth and The Striated
14.1 Introduction
14.2 The Technological Model (475-477)
14.3 The Musical Model (477-8)
14.4 The Maritime Model (478-482)
14.5 The Mathematical Model (482-488)
14.6 The Physical Model (488-492)
14.7 The Aesthetic Model: Nomad Art (492-500)
15. Conclusion: Concrete Rules and Abstract Machines
15.1 Introduction
15.2 S: Strata, Stratification (502-3)
15.3 A: Assemblages (503-5)
15.4 R: Rhizome (505-6)
15.5 C: Plane of Consistency, Body without Organs (506-8)
15.6 D: Deterritorialization (508-10)
15.7 M: Abstract Machines (Diagram and Phylum) (510-14)
Bibliography
Henry SomersHall is Professor of Philosophy at Royal Holloway, University of London. He has written extensively on Gilles Deleuze and the broader twentiethcentury French philosophical tradition. He is the author of Hegel, Deleuze and the Critique of Representation (SUNY Press, 2012), Deleuzes Difference and Repetition (Edinburgh University Press, 2013) and Judgement and Sense in Modern French Philosophy (Cambridge University Press, 2022), and coeditor (with Daniel W. Smith) of The Cambridge Companion to Deleuze (Cambridge University Press, 2012), (with Jeffrey A. Bell and James Williams) A Thousand Plateaus and Philosophy (Edinburgh University Press, 2018), and (with Jeffrey A. Bell) The Deleuzian Mind (Routledge, 2025).
