الفهرس 
An Introduction to Gilles Deleuze: Poetics and PoliticsOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The present study has examined the interplay between poetics and politics in the work of
the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. For him, the role of literature in politics is crucial. The
centrality of literature, especially in its minor form, to his political thought is based on three main
assumptions. First, the people are missing due to the impact of such public institutions as
religion, the media and politics. Therefore, second, the creation of a people to come represents
the linchpin of his theory of minor literature. Finally, the goal Deleuze sets for minor literature is
twofold: (1) to contribute to the collapse of majority standards, and (2) to promote the
minoritarian-becoming of identity. In that sense, writers, who assume a minor perspective, are
assigned the role of society’s doctors as they are able to discern the mute forces (the symptoms)
operating within society and provide new possibilities (medication).
Revolutionary as it is, minor literature has three major aesthetic characteristics. First, it is a
form of literature which is immediately social and political. The political immediacy of minor
literature is crystalized in its resistance to the formation of closed societies and ossified forms. It
is directly political since it does not conform to the power structure, especially the rhizome,
operating within the socio-political landscape. Second, language, in minor literature, exhibits a
high level of deterritorialization. Language deterritorialization is an act of both aesthetic and
political values. To achieve political ends, minor writers detach language, a key element in the
formation and liberation of the subject, from its conventional territory. Finally, minor literature
operates through a collective assemblage of enunciation. It addresses the people collectively.
This social and collective character of minor literature urges individual subjects to give up their
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personal concerns and engage in a collective enterprise – a collective revolution against the
oppressive forces dominating their societies. The aesthetic and political value of minor literature
sets the theoretical framework for his engagement with theatre.