FRENCH THEORY: HOW FOUCAULT, DERRIDA, DELEUZE, & CO. TRANSFORMED THE INTELLECTUAL LIFE OF THE UNITED STATES
Name
Ferng-2010-FRENCH THEORY HOW FOUCAULT, DERRIDA, DELEUZE, & CO.pdf
Size
233.44 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
8e49d41e9d9647e73ea8ca0fef86ead9
Author(s)
Ferng, Jennifer H.
Date Issued
April 2010
Journal
Leonardo
Publisher
MIT Press
Citation
Ferng, Jennifer. “French Theory: How Foucault, Derrida, Deleuze, & Co. Transformed the Intellectual Life of the United States by François Cusset, translated by Jeff Fort, with Josephine Berganza and Marlon Jones. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN, U.S.A., 2008. Originally published in French in 2003. 388 pp. Paper. ISBN: 978-0-8166-4733-0.” Leonardo 43.2 (2010): 190-191. © 2010 ISAST.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Artist and activist Jean-Jacques Lebel,
who had imported beat poetry into
France from the United States, once
invited Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari
to a 1975 concert held in Massachusetts,
where the two had the
opportunity to meet Bob Dylan and
Joan Baez backstage. Somewhat unimpressed
with the two French philosophers,
the folksingers had not bothered
to read Anti-Oedipus, and likewise the
two theorists were unfortunately not
interested in smoking marijuana: an
inadvertent misalignment of social
interests, creating a somewhat awkward
encounter for all parties involved. This
anecdote of an ill-conceived compatibility
epitomizes the spirit of comprehending
the objectives of French theory
and prompts an inevitable query: have
we on the U.S. side of the Atlantic been
able to come to terms with the French,
their traditions of intellectual thought
and their philosophical legacy?
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. School of Architecture and Planning
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1162/leon.2010.43.2.190
