Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari : between theatre and philosophy. For A Coming Theatre.

PhD dissertation defended on December 13, 2012. Paris-Sorbonne.

Supervisors : Pr. Dr. Denis Guénoun (Paris-Sorbonne University), Pr. Dr. Paola Marrati (Johns Hopkins, Baltimore), Pr. Dr. Françoise Bonardel (Paris-Panthéon-Sorbonne University), Pr. Dr. Joseph Danan (Paris-Sorbonne-nouvelle University)

Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari are not famous for having a deep, enduring interest in theatre. My thesis first develops historical and biographical elements to reveal that the notion of their indifference to theatre is cruelly inexact: the former repeatedly mentions drama and constructively criticises it, while the latter turns out to be the author of dramas which are yet unpublished, and whose theatrical characteristics are revealed here. In a more conceptual part, I then offer the mapping of a heterogeneous web of notions that both philosophers abide by: theatre is used in the creation of new concepts; it is at the service of a new wording of philosophy. The Theatre of Thought, the Method of Dramatisation, the Theatre of Cruelty, the Schizo Theatre, the Minor Theatre and the Theatre through the process of Becoming-Other are the signposts of A Coming Theatre that our research sets out to explore. Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy offers a reaction to the crisis of theatre. While Deleuze takes theatre on new lines of flight and pushes it on the verge of pure abstraction, Félix Guattari forges a Postdramatic Theatre. My thesis includes indexes of all the theatrical vocabulary and characters to be found in the works of both philosophers, as well as interviews by some of their close artist friends. 

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