Poststructuralism as philosophy of difference: Gilles Deleuze's Difference and Repetition

Abstract

How do we take structuralism further? In 1972 Gilles Deleuze published a short essay on structuralism, “How do we Recognize Structuralism?”, for the twentieth-century volume of a multi-volume history of philosophy. It is probable that the essay was written some time earlier. In its opening paragraphs Deleuze situates it around 1967: near to the date of publication of his masterwork Difference and Repetition [ Difference et repetition ] in 1968. This dating is highly plausible, since the essay is very close to the earlier book in its concepts and arguments. This essay on structuralism is very important for any work on poststructuralism and Deleuze because it shows how his work fits with structuralism, but also how it changes it and makes it more radical. The essay does not really answer its opening question: how do we recognize structuralism? Or at least it does not do so historically. Instead, Deleuze takes many of the philosophical arguments from Difference and Repetition and reflects on what structuralism can become and how radical it can be. The essay is therefore about poststructuralism as much as it is about structuralism. It is about structuralism in a very a radical guise. The view of thought as the interpretation and transformation of what came before is typical of Deleuze's philosophy. He insists on the creative aspects of thought, because its role is to revivify structures that tend towards fixity. He sees fixity as defined by representation, that is, a form of repetition of the same. This explains why his book title includes repetition but together with difference.