Differenciations of “enfant” / “child” in the achievement of Gilles Deleuze

Abstract

The thesis investigates the paradox of a word, “enfant,” or “child,” in its relation to ten works in the oeuvre of Gilles Deleuze, as produced by him and with others. The paradox is that this word circulates less as this word, “enfant,” than as, in the vocabulary of Différence et répétition (1968), an Idea, whose differential virtuality is multiple, and that differenciates, or actualizes, across the surfaces of these ten texts, repeating in different forms. This differencial circulation can also be read through the vocabularies of Logique du sens (1969) and Qu’est-ce que la philosophie? (1991). Differenciations include: “Dionysos-enfant” (1962); “Alice” of Through the Looking Glass (1969); “devenir-enfant” (with Félix Guattari, 1980); and “enfance du monde” (with Claire Parnet, 1988). The suggestion is developed that actualization of “enfant” for Deleuze also became an act, in that his suicide of 4 November 1995 resonates with both his “Dionysos” and “Alice.”