Table Of ContentHalf Title
Deleuze and Guattari and Terror
Series Page
Deleuze Connections
‘It is not the elements or the sets which define the multiplicity. What
defines it is the AND, as something which has its place between the
elements or between the sets. AND, AND, AND – stammering.’
Gilles Deleuze and Claire Parnet, Dialogues
General Editor
Ian Buchanan
Editorial Advisory Board
Keith Ansell-Pearson Gregg Lambert
Rosi Braidotti Adrian Parr
Claire Colebrook Paul Patton
Tom Conley Patricia Pisters
Titles Available in the Series
Ian Buchanan and Claire Colebrook (eds), Deleuze and Feminist Theory
Ian Buchanan and John Marks (eds), Deleuze and Literature
Mark Bonta and John Protevi (eds), Deleuze and Geophilosophy
Ian Buchanan and Marcel Swiboda (eds), Deleuze and Music
Ian Buchanan and Gregg Lambert (eds), Deleuze and Space
Martin Fuglsang and Bent Meier Sørensen (eds), Deleuze and the Social
Ian Buchanan and Adrian Parr (eds), Deleuze and the Contemporary World
Constantin V. Boundas (ed.), Deleuze and Philosophy
Ian Buchanan and Nicholas Thoburn (eds), Deleuze and Politics
Chrysanthi Nigianni and Merl Storr (eds), Deleuze and Queer Theory
Jeffrey A. Bell and Claire Colebrook (eds), Deleuze and History
Laura Cull (ed.), Deleuze and Performance
Mark Poster and David Savat (eds), Deleuze and New Technology
Simone Bignall and Paul Patton (eds), Deleuze and the Postcolonial
Stephen Zepke and Simon O’Sullivan (eds), Deleuze and Contemporary Art
Laura Guillaume and Joe Hughes (eds), Deleuze and the Body
Daniel W. Smith and Nathan Jun (eds), Deleuze and Ethics
Frida Beckman (ed.), Deleuze and Sex
David Martin-Jones and William Brown (eds), Deleuze and Film
Laurent de Sutter and Kyle McGee (eds), Deleuze and Law
Arun Saldanha and Jason Michael Adams (eds), Deleuze and Race
Rebecca Coleman and Jessica Ringrose (eds), Deleuze and Research Methodologies
Inna Semetsky and Diana Masny (eds), Deleuze and Education
Hélène Frichot and Stephen Loo (eds), Deleuze and Architecture
Betti Marenko and Jamie Brassett (eds), Deleuze and Design
Hélène Frichot, Catharina Gabrielsson and Jonathan Metzger (eds), Deleuze and the
City
Colin Gardner and Patricia MacCormack (eds), Deleuze and the Animal
Markus P.J.Bohlmann and Anna Hickey-Moody (eds), Deleuze and Children
Chantelle Gray van Heerden and Aragorn Eloff (eds), Deleuze and Anarchism
Michael James Bennett and Tano S. Posteraro (eds), Deleuze and Evolutionary
Theory
Rick Dolphijn and Rosi Braidotti (eds), Deleuze and Guattari and Facism
Anindya Sekhar Purakayastha and Saswat Samay Das (eds), Deleuze and Guattari
and Terror
Visit the Deleuze Connections website at:
www.edinburghuniversitypress.com/series/delco
Title Page
Deleuze and Guattari and
Terror
Edited by Anindya Sekhar Purakayastha
and Saswat Samay Das
Copyright
Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK.
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Samay Das, 2023
© the chapters their several authors, 2023
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Contents
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction: Chaosophy Notes: Terror, the Seventh War
Machine 1
Anindya Sekhar Purakayastha and Saswat Samay Das
1 The War on Terror versus the War Machine 30
Claire Colebrook
2 Guattari and Terror: Radicalisation as Singularisation 44
Janell Watson
3 Creative Resistance: An Aesthetics of Creative Affect in a
Time of Global Terror 60
Janae Sholtz
4 The Inhospitality of the Global North: Deleuze,
Neo-colonialism and Conflict-caused Migration 84
Don Johnston
5 Suicided by A Life: Deleuze, Terror and the Search for the
‘Middle Way’ 104
S. Romi Mukherjee
6 What if, What One Needs to Cure Oneself of is the Cure?
The Clandestine Complicity of Opponents 132
Anup Dhar
7 Terror and the Time-Image: How Not to Believe in the World 152
Clayton Crockett
vi Contents
8 The Image of Terror: Art, ISIS, Iconoclasm and the Question
of the People to Come 171
Julian Reid
9 Deleuze, the Simulacrum and the Screening of Terror Online 184
Yasmin Ibrahim
10 Islands of Sorrow, Ships of Despair: Nativism Resurgent and
Spectacles of Terror 204
Arthur Kroker
11 The Spectacle of Terror 226
Samir Gandesha
Notes on Contributors 237
Index 241
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
Perhaps this book was molecularised during our regular discussions
since 2008 at various tea stalls at IIT Kharagpur on different debates
in Continental philosophy and critical theory. Amid the surrounding
cacophony and comforting greenery, we used to revisit the genealogies
of the Frankfurt School, making Jurgen Habermas and his theory
of public sphere communicative rationality the key point of our tea
table talks for unending hours. Nostalgia has a soothing effect when
reminiscing about those fascinating hours of pure discussion and vibrant
glow. Those were indeed blissful moments of daring, emboldening us to
intervene in these critical theoretical debates from our positions in the
Global South. Needless to say, we were beginners at this job, but that
did not diminish the thrill and excitement of walking with those great
world-philosophical minds. Long walks on the sprawling campus of IIT
Kharagpur, endless discussions and dreams along the empty corridors of
the Humanities and Social Science Department, bouts of pure joy and
humorous rides through different cobwebs of philosophy and Zizekean
thunders sustained us, and we cruised along. Books were in short supply
as very few were doing critical theory in that rigorous manner in India
at that time, but thanks to Ravi Swamy and the Central Library of IIT
Kharagpur, a generous flow of the latest books and journals in this field
was supplied, a facility that whetted our appetite further, helping us to
accentuate the momentum of critical theoretical practices. Giovanna
Borradori’s profound conversation with Derrida and Habermas in her
Philosophy in a Time of Terror (2003) arrived, and as we pored over
it, we realised the need to revisit the genealogies of the entire critical
theoretical tradition. We decided to move beyond Kant, Habermas and
Derrida, our first loves, and discovered the radical glories of Deleuze
and Guattari, realising that we had chanced upon people who seemed
to have analysed the problems afflicting the modern world in a better
viii Acknowledgements
way. Our deeper investment in studying political, social as well as ontic
violence drew us closer to Deleuzo-Guttarian schizoanalysis and the
larger concepts of process philosophy.
Everyday news reports of political atrocities happening in different
parts of the world at that time would intrude into our regular discussions,
and we were deeply disturbed, confronting the same question time and
again: how to offer some philosophical solace amid this descending
gloom unfolding through neoliberal policies, systemic violence, heinous
terror attacks and equally demonic counter-terror violence, militarism,
the violence of ‘homonationalism’, right-wing political attacks, racial
hatred, dogma-driven animosities, profiteering and ecocide – the list can
go on. None of these, we felt, could be deciphered through normative
critical theoretical frames, as they demand Deleuzean schizonanalysis.
Our flirtation with Deleuze and Guattari was still quivering at the
threshold of possibility until we invited Ian Buchanan to speak at IIT
Kharagpur on Deleuzism. Ian’s warmth and refreshing encouragement
dispelled all hesitancy at our end, prompting us to think of working on a
project related to Deleuze, Guattari and spirituality or Deleuze, Guattari
and terror. A series of discussions followed at different locations in
Kolkata, and Ian’s valuable input during our sojourn at Kolkata’s Park
Street helped us to settle on the second option.
This was the beginning of an arduous journey, as we began to look for
Deleuze scholars and potential contributors with proven track records
in this field. Without Ian’s constant support this would not have been
possible. As often happens with edited volumes, the initial euphoria
eclipsed as some contributors had to withdraw for health reasons or
because of other personal difficulties, and so it took us longer to complete
the project than we had thought initially in 2016. Finally, we gathered a
brilliant constellation of wonderful contributors and we profusely thank
all of them for being part of this project, and for agreeing to contribute
in spite of their other academic preoccupations.
In between times, our love for Deleuze and Guattari brought us into
close contact with other leading Deleuze scholars, and we take this
opportunity to thank each of them for their support and profound input.
We convey our gratitude to Ian Buchanan, Nathan Widder, Nicholas
Tampio, Janae Sholtz, Ajay Gudavarthy, A. Raghuramaraju and Anup
Dhar, who have been great interlocutors and guides in our Deleuzean
journey. We benefited immensely through our conversations with them
during their stays at IIT Kharagpur, where they spoke in detail as invited
speakers on different aspects of Continental philosophy and Deleuze. The
2017 Deleuze conference at Tata Institute for Social Sciences, Mumbai,
Acknowledgements ix
also proved to be immensely helpful as we learned from other leading
Deleuze scholars such as Brian Massumi, Erin Manning, Kenneth Surin
and many others. We remembered that academic gathering with fond
memories as we worked through this manuscript. Special mention of
our stay at Potsdam, Germany, during the 2014 ASNEL conference is in
order here, as it saw us conversing with many scholars working on post-
colonial interventions in critical theory. Our adventure around the Berlin
Wall, Humboldt University and Hegel’s grave in Berlin provided the
impetus to continue our critical theoretical flirtations. We also remem-
ber people who helped us in different ways during the course of this
book. Thomas Byers, former director of the Centre for Commonwealth
Studies, University of Louisville, was a wonderful host and guide in
picking up the latest books on philosophy and critical theory in Green
Apple Books and City Lights at San Francisco when one of us went for
a fellowship stay at the University of Louisville.
Both of us express our deep gratitude to our parents and family
members who have been of constant support throughout. We also thank
our friends and colleagues who provided moral and intellectual support.
At Edinburgh University Press, we once again thank Ian Buchanan, the
series editor, and Carol Macdonald and Sarah Foyle, the commissioning
editors, who have been of wonderful support. We are grateful to the
two anonymous readers for their remarkable comments which helped
in improving the manuscript. We sincerely hope this volume will offer
some fresh insights in the domain of Deleuze and Guattari studies.
