Deleuze and Biopolitics as the Face of Capitalism

Abstract

Gilles Deleuze does not belong directly to the debate on biopolitics: he died in 1995, when this controversy was at its first stages. However, he has indirectly contributed to the discussion through manifold readings and interpretations of his texts. Authors such as Agamben and Esposito have chosen to construct a Deleuzian biopolitics through the concept of “life”, such as it appears in a brief text from 1995: “Immanence: a life…”. This article aims to show that this path, far from accomplishing the objective that it establishes (to offer a Deleuzian take on politics) leads to the opposite result: the dissolution of the possibility of an actual politics based on Deleuze. We will try to ground the field of authentic Deleuzian politics, that do not take place any longer in the impersonal life and beatitude, but in the field of the struggle and conflicts of the bodies that actually exist.