Leibniz and the Baroque, Lecture 11, 3 March1987

<p>A series of lectures given by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze at the University of Paris 8. This eleventh lecture is organized within a 20-lecture seminar that Deleuze taught between October 1986 and June 1987, presented on March 3, 1987.</p>

<p>Having undertaken a study of sufficient reason, and then of compossible worlds and the individual’s freedom – that is, the topics of chapters 4 and 5 in The Fold – Deleuze seems to return to certain topics from chapter 3, “What is the Baroque?” Deleuze explains this strategy as offering a review of what he calls “the second part of the course” (the focus of which, he says, was to examine the “upper floor”), with Deleuze preparing for the third part that he defines as the study of “the theory of matter” in Leibniz. Calling the previous session’s discussion a “dramaturgy of souls”, Deleuze proposes here to explore the new status of life in this series of elevations and descents, taking Tintoretto’s work “The Final Judgment” as an exemplar of interplay between lights and shadows, specifically the darkness in the monad’s depths, the <em>fuscum subnigram</em> of the closed room. Deleuze “applies” the concept of the Baroque to define any thinker attributing the basic dual property to the fold to be a disciple of Leibniz, e.g., Heidegger — for whom Deleuze outlines some key points – and Mallarmé — his “fold after fold” (<em>pli selon pli</em>) – and Thomas de Quincey. Deleuze seeks examples of the weaving and layering of the fold, exploring the Baroque in the plastic arts: contrasting the Gothic fold to the Baroque, then Greek bas-relief as well Greek political power, finally, the “disturbing case” of Gaëtan de Clérambault’s fetishistic taste for fabrics and folds.</p>

<p>This dataset includes one .mp3 audio file of the original recorded lecture and the complete French transcription and English translation in odt format.</p>

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<p>Les Séminaires de Deleuze sont une collection d'enregistrements audio, de transcriptions et de traductions en anglais et de documents complémentaires des conférences que le philosophe français Gilles Deleuze a donné lors de sa carrière à l'Université de Paris 8.</p>

<p>Ayant entrepris l’étude de la raison suffisante, puis des mondes compossibles et de la liberté de l’individvu – les sujets des chapitres 4 et 5 de <em>Le Pli</em> – Deleuze semble revenir en arrière avec des thèmes du chapitre 3, “Qu’est-ce que le baroque?” Mais, comme il explique son approche vers la fin de la séance, il développe ainsi une mise en place de ce qu’il appelle “la deuxième partie du cours” (l’examen, dit-il, de “l’étage d’en haut”) afin de préparer l’étude pendant le troisième segment de “la théorie de la matière” chez Leibniz.</p>