Memory and the Metaphysics of Music: Battersby's Move Away from Deleuze and Guattari

Abstract

This essay seeks to further elucidate and critically assess the distinct philosophical position of Christine Battersby through examining in closer detail her critique of Deleuze and Guattari. It begins by discussing Battersby's reading of Deleuze and Guattari's materialist metaphysics, which focuses on their evocation of the ‘refrain’ in A Thousand Plateaus. Through tracing their account of the material processes of repetition within the world of sound and music, Battersby acknowledges that Deleuze and Guattari offer an enticing alternative to the ‘top-down’ Kantian metaphysics of form over matter. However, she argues, the key problem is that Deleuze and Guattari seek to ‘bypass memory’, and end up establishing a false dichotomy between memory and repetition. In consequence, Deleuze and Guattari's ‘rhizomatics’ and ‘surface becomings’ block any investigation into the long-term patterns of repetition and memory that constitute specifically sexed, embodied modes of existence. Battersby turns instead to Kierkegaard's concept of repetition, which, she claims, brings memory and repetition together, showing that ‘repetition can mark out depths as well as surfaces’. The essay goes on to reassess Battersby's critique. It suggests a possible route for defending Deleuze against Battersby's charge that he seeks to ‘bypass memory’ by pointing out the pivotal role occupied by Bergson's concept of memory within Deleuze's solo-authored work. The essay concludes, however, by arguing that Battersby's critique of Deleuze as a resource for feminist philosophy nevertheless remains valid. This is because Deleuze's reworking of Bergson's concept of ‘virtual’ memory takes us no further towards the deeply ingrained material and historical patternings of female existence that Battersby seeks to give priority in her quest to overturn the androcentrism of western metaphysics.