The relevance and limitations of Deleuze and Guattari for thinking the racial Anthropocene
537 Heller Hall
Abstract: Deleuze and Guattari are daunting to read, but they have nevertheless burrowed themselves in social science discourse as go-to authors to grapple with the intricate and intensely fraught materialities of social formations. In this informal talk I will provide a geographical twist to some of their concepts which can help take stock of the overall systemic backdrop to the small and large socioecological disasters piling up in the present, namely, the Anthropocene. It has (fortunately) become commonplace to point out that those least responsible for the extreme weather events, toxicities, and infrastructure failures are the most vulnerable to their effects, and that this situation makes of the Anthropocene intrinsically a megamachine of racialization. This new geological epoch ushered in by anthropos -- or more accurately the figure of what Deleuze and Guattari call White Man -- is also the time when the most consequential political conundrums about reorganizing society insinuate themselves as never before. But while the revolutionary politics baked into Deleuze and Guattari's ontological toolkit is worth spelling out, I will offer some critical notes on whether their philosophy will suffice for comprehending how something one could call justice could be brought about.
Downloadable poster:
About the Speaker
Arun Saldanha is Professor in the Department of Geography, Environment, and Society at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of Psychedelic White: Goa Trance and the Viscosity of Race and Space After Deleuze. Arun coedited Deleuze and Race, Sexual Difference Between Psychoanalysis and Vitalism, Geographies of Race and Food: Fields Bodies Markets, and the Deleuze Studies special issue “A new earth: Deleuze and Guattari in the Anthropocene”. He teaches classes on music, tourism, and colonialism. He is coeditor of the new Edinburgh University Press series “Geotheory” and currently working on three projects: an edited collection, Prince from Minneapolis, based on a symposium held at the University of Minnesota; a special issue on the new space race; and an interview conducted with Alain Badiou.