Deleuze, Gilles (1925–1995)

French philosopher and critical theorist. He was a major figure in French poststructuralism and was concerned, in particular, to analyse the relations between desire, power, and discourse. He wrote a number of innovative philosophical works, including Difference and Repetition (1969), The Logic of Sense (1969), and What is Philosophy? (1991), but is perhaps best known for Anti-Oedipus (1972) and A Thousand Plateaus (1980), both of which were written in collaboration with the psychoanalyst Félix Guattari (1930–1992).

Deleuze was born in Paris, France, and was educated at the Sorbonne in Paris. He began lecturing at the Lycée Louis le Grand in Paris, and later worked at the Sorbonne University of Lyons and at Vincennes University, before retiring in 1987. In Anti-Oedipus he analyses what the French philosopher Michel Foucault has called the ‘fascism’ of everyday life, and suggests that philosophy should reject its reliance on the concept of negation and endeavour instead to become ‘nomadic’ by affirming difference and multiplicity.

Deleuze also published studies of individual philosophers, in which he attempted to displace established interpretations of their work. These include Empiricism and Subjectivity (1953), about the Scottish philosopher David Hume; Nietzsche and Philosophy (1962); Kant's Critical Philosophy (1963); Expressionism in Philosophy: Spinoza (1968); and The Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque (1988). His other works include books on literature and art, including Marcel Proust et les signes/Marcel Proust and Signs (1970), as well as two books on cinema.