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Guattari's final book is a succinct summary of his socio-philosophical outlook. It includes critical reflections on Lacanian psychoanalysis, structuralism, information theory, postmodernism, and the thought of Heidegger, Bakhtin, Barthes, and others.
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Chaosmosis
an ethico-aesthetic paradigm
Felix Guattari translated by
Paul Bains and Julian Pefanis
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS BLOOMINGTON & INDIANAPOLIS
English translation © 1995, Power Institute, Paul Bains, and Julian Pefanis
On the planking, on the ship's bulwarks, on the
Chaosmosis was originally published in French as Chaosmose. © 1992, Editions Galilee
sea, with the course of the sun through the sky
All rights reserved
script takes shape, takes shape and destroys itself at the same slow pace - shadows, spines, shafts of broken light refocused in the angles,
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses' Resolutions on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Guattari,
Felix.
[Chaosmose. English] Chaosmosis : an ethico-aesthetic paradigm / Felix Guattari; translated by Paul Bains and Julian Pefanis. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-253-32945-0 (alk. paper). -ISBN 0-253-21004-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Psychoanalysis-Philosophy. 2. Subjectivity. I. Title. BF175.G81313 95 1995 -31401 194-dc2O 12345009998979695
and the ship, an unreadable and wrenching
the triangles of a fleeting geometry that yields
to the shadow of the ocean waves. And then, unceasingly, lives again. Marguerite Duras
The North China Lover
Contents
1
On the production of subjectivity
2
Machinic heterogenesis
33
3
Schizoanalytic metamodelisation
58
4
Schizo chaosmosis
77
5
Machinic orality and virtual ecology
88
6
The new aesthetic paradigm
98
7
The ecosophic object
119
1 On the production of subjectivity
My professional activities in the field of psychotherapy, like my political and cultural engagements, have led me increasingly to put the emphasis on subjectivity as the product of individuals, groups and institutions.
Considering subjectivity from the point of view of its production does not imply any return to traditional systems of binary determination - material infrastructure/ideological superstructure. The various semiotc registers that combine to engender subjectivity do not maintain obligatory hierarchical relations fixed for all time. Sometimes, for example, economic
semiotisation becomes dependent on collective psychological factors - look at the sensitivity of the stock exchange to fluctuations of opinion. Subjectivity is in fact plural and polyphonic - to use Mikhail Bakhtin's expression. It recognises no dominant or determinant instance guiding all other forms according
to a univocal causality. At least three types of problem prompt us to enlarge the definition of subjectivity beyond the classical opposition between individual subject and society, and in so doing, revise the models of the unconscious currently in circulation: the irruption of
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