Sylabus
List of topics:
- Reich’s critique of fascism and Nietzsche’s critique of ressentiment
- Deleuze’s and Guattari’s re-description of Reich and Nietzsche
- problem of majority and what does it mean to form a minority?
- situation of Roma people and forms of their political resistance
- problem of globalization
Anotace
This course is focused on the political philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. To enter the political dimension of their writings, we will, nevertheless, start with Wilhelm Reich and Friederich Nietzsche who’s critique of ressentiment seems to be essential for the understanding of Deleuzes’s and Guattari’s Anti-Oedipus which can be read as a kind of escape from ressentiment.
Since the mental structure of ressentiment is closely linked to the phenomenon of majority, we will pay attention to the notion of minority developed especially in Kafka. Toward a Minor Literature and Thousand Plateaus.
The position of minority shall be illustrated on the situation of Roma people in Central Europe and the forms of their resistance to majority shall make it clear that politics cannot be reduced to a theatre of parliamentary elections, for it is primarily a way of life. Finally, we will come to terms with the processes of globalization as described by Deleuze and Guattari in Thousand Plateaus.