Felix Guattari's Schizoanalytic Ecology - by Hanjo Berressem (Hardcover)

About the Book

Hanjo Berressem establishes the notion of a schizoanalytic ecology as the most consistent conceptual spine of Félix Guattari's work. He covers the whole range of Guattari's solo work and the books co-authored with Gilles Deleuze, primarily a rigorous explication and analysis of 'Schizoanalytic Cartographies'.

Book Synopsis

Hanjo Berressem establishes the notion of a schizoanalytic ecology as the most consistent conceptual spine of Félix Guattari's work. He covers the whole range of Guattari's solo work, as well as the books co-authored with Gilles Deleuze. The core of his argument is developed through a rigorous explication and analysis of Guattari's 'Schizoanalytic Cartographies'. This reveals an ecological ontology developed from key concepts such as the informal diagram, the abstract machine and transversality, which is based on the conceptual complementarity of the world (the given) and its creatures (the giving).

From the Back Cover

Develops a new conceptual framework for Guattari's ecology Hanjo Berressem establishes the notion of a schizoanalytic ecology as the most consistent conceptual spine of Félix Guattari's work. To look at a situation ecologically means to analyze and administer it with the practical aim of creating a space in which it is possible to actualize viable modes of life. To create a multiplicitous, open and elastic milieu that is conducive to processes of both individuation and singularization. Berressem covers the whole range of Guattari's solo work, as well as the books co-authored with Gilles Deleuze. But the core of his argument is developed by a comprehensive explication and analysis of Guattari's Schizoanalytic Cartographies. This reveals an ecological ontology, developed out of key concepts such as the informal diagram, the abstract machine and transversality, that is based on the conceptual complementarity of the world (the given) and its creatures (the giving). Hanjo Berressem is Professor of American Studies at the University of Cologne, Germany.

Review Quotes

This volume is a demanding but very rewarding reading of Félix Guattari's multifaceted schizoanalytic thought--a unique and timely enrichment, in its scope and comprehensiveness, to the growing interpretive and critical literature surrounding the work of the La Borde clinic analyst and activist. Hanjo Berressem, having chosen Schizoanalytic Cartographies as his text-key to the explication of the entire work of Guattari, shows convincingly that analysis, philosophy, activism, as well as art and cultural criticism are different versions of Guattari's ecology and explores fruitfully Guattari's question, how to be adequate to the world, that is, how to develop an overall ecological attitude that would permeate every moment of our lives.--Constantin V. Boundas, Trent University

About the Author

Hanjo Berressem is Professor of American Studies at the University of Cologne. He is the author of On the Gradual Contraction of Media in Movement (Bloomsbury, 2018), Lines of Desire: Reading Gombrowicz's Fiction with Lacan (Northwestern University Press, 1998) and Pynchon's Poetics: Interfacing Theory and Text (University of Illinois Press, 1992). He is co-editor of Near Encounters: Festschrift for Richard Martin (Peter Lang 1995) and several journal special issues.