Understanding Deleuze, Understanding Modernism by S. E. Gontarski
summary of Understanding Deleuze, Understanding Modernism edited by S. E. Gontarski:
Understanding Deleuze, Understanding Modernism, edited by S. E. Gontarski, is part of the “Understanding Philosophy, Understanding Modernism” series and brings together essays that explore how the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze can illuminate the theory and practice of modernist literature, art, and culture. The volume emphasizes Deleuze’s concepts of difference, becoming, multiplicity, and deterritorialization as tools for rethinking the experimental forms, radical aesthetics, and disruptive energies of modernism. Rather than treating modernism as a closed historical movement, the contributors use Deleuze to highlight its openness, its challenge to fixed structures of meaning, and its drive toward new modes of perception and expression. The essays connect Deleuze’s philosophy to major figures such as James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Virginia Woolf, and Gertrude Stein, showing how his ideas of language as a fluid, generative force resonate with modernist experiments in style, fragmentation, and interiority. At the same time, the book explores broader intersections between Deleuze and modernist movements in the visual arts, music, and performance, demonstrating how his thought provides a framework for understanding modernism as a field of continuous innovation rather than a set of static achievements. By placing Deleuze’s poststructuralist philosophy in dialogue with modernism’s restless creativity, the collection underscores both the philosophical depth of modernist art and the aesthetic vitality of Deleuze’s concepts. Ultimately, Understanding Deleuze, Understanding Modernism invites readers to see modernism not just as a literary or artistic era, but as a mode of thought and creation that finds renewed life and relevance when approached through the lens of Deleuzian philosophy.
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