A Thousand Plateaus V, The State Apparatus and the War Machine, Lecture 5, 15 January 1980

<p><em>The Deleuze Seminars</em> is a collection of audio recordings, transcriptions, and English translations of, and supplemental materials from, the lectures French philosopher Gilles Deleuze gave during his career at the University of Paris 8.</p>

<p>Following publication of <em>Anti-Oedipus</em> in 1972, Deleuze continues to develop the proliferation of concepts that his collaboration with Guattari had yielded. As part of this process of expanding concepts in order to produce the sequel of <em>Capitalism & Schizophrenia</em>, <em>A Thousand Plateaus</em>, this series of 13 lectures on “The State Apparatus and War Machines” constitutes the major seminar of 1979-80 and Deleuze’s penultimate consideration of these concepts. Deleuze first considers material begun during the previous year’s seminar, material corresponding to plateaus 12 (1227: Treatise on Nomadology – The War Machine), 13 (7000 B.C.: Apparatus of Capture), and 14 (1440: The Smooth and the Striated). [The final consideration of these concepts will take place in the May-June 1980 two-session seminar on “Anti-Oedipus and Other Reflections”.</p>

<p>With no sessions available from December or from 8 January, some sessions may be missing from the recordings, and this session 5, with an 18-minute length, appears to be a fragment of the full session, clearly situated at the end of the session. After consideration of the State form versus City form from the previous session, Deleuze starts within a comparison, apparently between Camus's view of the Caligula story and a text by the Roman historian Sallust, as way to consider the emergence of "relations of personal dependency". Contrasting this to feudalism and to the French monarchy, Deleuze asserts that a figure of colossal importance in the sphere of personal dependency is the person who laments, the unfortunate (whatever their rank or circumstances). With reference to research by Ferenc Tökei on the Chinese elegy, Deleuze develops a list, considering the epic lament, the tragic lament, the prophetic lament (e.g., Job), the popular lament or complaint (<em>plainte</em>), especially among the Greeks and Latin poets. With Tökei’s examples, Deleuze’s list culminates with the example of the "freed slave", with the experience of being an outcast, and yet who is revealed as important not only for the lament but also for the development of tools of government, e.g., as the Emperor’s counsel. Deleuze concludes by outlining different sorts of lament to consider: the hypochondriac’s, the melancholic’s, and the depressive’s, each quite distinct rhythmically.</p>

<p>This dataset includes four files: an aggregate version of the audio recordings into a single mp3, the complete French transcription and English translation of the recorded lecture in odt format, and the original Web Deleuze French transcription. [WebDeleuze was founded by Richard Pinhas -- a student in Deleuze's seminars -- who, with the Deleuze family's support, developed transcripts and translations of many of the seminars.]</p>

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<p><em>Les Séminaires de Deleuze</em> 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>A la suite de la publication de <em>L’Anti-Œdipe</em> en 1972, Deleuze continue de développer la prolifération de concepts que sa collaboration avec Guattari avait fait naître. Dans le cadre de ce processus d’élargissement des concepts en vue de produire la suite de <em>Capitalisme et schizophrénie</em>, <em>Mille plateaux</em>, ce séminaire de 13 séance sur « L’appareil d’État et les machines de guerre » constitue le séminaire majeur de 1979-80 et l’avant-dernière réflexion de Deleuze sur ces concepts. La dernière réflexion aura lieu en mai-juin 1980, un mini-séminaire de deux séances sur « L’Anti-Œdipe et d’autres réflexions ».</p>

<p>Étant donné qu’aucune séance n’est disponible à partir de décembre ni du 8 janvier, il est probable que plusieurs séances manquent dans les enregistrements. Après avoir examiné la forme d’État par rapport à la forme de Ville lors de la session précédente disponible, ce fragment (apparemment à la fin de la séance) commence par une comparaison, apparemment entre la vision de Camus de l’histoire de Caligula et un texte de l’historien romain Salluste, comme moyen d’envisager l’émergence de « relations de dépendance personnelle ». Il oppose cela ensuite au féodalisme, puis examine la forme littéraire de la lamentation et de l’élégie (liée aux poètes romains), culminant dans l’exemple de « l’esclave affranchi », important non seulement pour la lamentation mais aussi pour le développement des outils du gouvernement.</p>