Thinking with Deleuze and Guattari: An exploration of writing asassemblage

Abstract

We need to keep experimenting with writing to meet the challenges of Deleuze and Guattari's flattened ontology in the humanities. The paper reports on a small, experimental research project at a university in the northwest of England. The findings are written in an experimental mode, inspired by the Deleuze and Guattarian concept, 'assemblage'. The experiment is theorised and assessed in a non-reductive way that offers future creative possibilities to other researchers. First, the paper presents a context for the subsequent experimental writing. Some current innovative writerly practice and some theoretical and methodological standpoints are reviewed. Next, this paper presents its theorisation of 'assemblage' with particular reference to Deleuze and Guattari's use of the idea, 'double articulation'. This approach supports and justifies the author's schematisation of the textual assemblage into four areas: identity, work, territory and dissolving territory. The author explains how these ideas function within an experimental discursive text and illustrates their possible usage in the experimental text itself. Thus, this paper offers a theoretical justification, an explanation of and an assessment of experimental writing, in addition to the experimental text itself, all of which are of potential interest to researchers in the fields of education and philosophy.

Exploring Instances of Deleuzian Rhizomatic Patterns in Students’ Writing and in Online Student Interactions

“…Studies have been conducted in recent years, in which a rhizomatic perspective has been implemented to transform the binary literacy practices in teaching and learning. These studies include those of Cormier (2008), Brailas (2020aBrailas ( , 2020b, Cumming (2015), Honan (2009), Hanley (2019), Johnson (2014), Johnston (2018), Kairienė and Mažeikienė (2021), Ko and Bal (2019), Mackness et al (2016), Martin and Strom (2017), Masny (2012), andWebb (2009). Webb's (2009) study, especially, paved the way on how academic writing could be taught in schools through the rhizomatic approach, as suggested by Deleuze and Guattari (1987).…”

“…A rhizome is a concept that was introduced by Deleuze and Guatarri (1987). These two scholars used the concept of a rhizome to critique authoritarian practices and hierarchical structures in academia (Bozkurt et al, 2016;Cormier, 2008;Brailas, 2020aBrailas, , 2020bHanley, 2019;Kairienė & Mažeikienė, 2021;Kinchin & Gravett, 2020); Mackness et al, 2016;Tillmanns & Filho, 2020;Webb, 2009). A rhizome is a botanical term referring to the roots of a plant growing from and spreading in different directions (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987;Ko & Bal, 2019;Tagata & Ribas, 2021).…”

Doing collective biography differently by incorporating methods of narrative inquiry, poetic inquiry and performance studies into the analysis of writings-as-data

“…From a Deleuzian perspective, we consider the creative recombination of disparate texts a 'smooth' way of analysing writings as data -one that, instead of sorting things into boxes, forges links, operating in 'a space of affects, more than one of properties … an intensive rather than an extensive space, one of distances, not of measures and properties ' (1987: 479). We also consider the fusion text we produced an instance of what Hanley (2018) and its own liability to slip, divide, become other'. This is a mode of becoming that 'effaces what we think we know', enabling a 'possibility space' of 'creative potential' in and through which new ideas may arise (Hanley 2018: 414).…”

Fra impuls til konseptuell idé i egenskapt barneteater – En hermeneutisk prosess i samspill mellom barn og kunstnere

“…Gjennom et narrativt forskerblikk er selve skriveprosessen en undersøkende og oppdagende metode (Ellis, 2004). Hanley (2019) foreslår skriving som en form for tenkning, og skriver om tekst som henholdsvis «a creative», «generative», «integrated» og «dissolving Tolknings-og persepsjonsprosesser og meningsdanning utgjør en viktig del av vår knowing (jf. Bresler, 2004) og profesjonelle rammeverk, som gjør oss i stand til å vaere performative i vår undervisning.…”