Gilles Deleuze and the contemporary biopolitical debate

Abstract

The present work is a research on Gilles Deleuze’s contribution to the contemporary biopolitical debate. To begin with, we analyze his interpretation of Foucault’s conception of biopolitics, especially the vitalist matrix of his reading, and we examine its impact on the distinction between “biopower” and “biopolitics” according to certain authors (Lazzarato, Negri, Revel). We then reveal the presence of deleuzian notions in other perspectives (the “impersonal” in Esposito, the “society of control” in Negri). Finally, we propose renewing the fundamental tensions of the debate on Life, Politics, Language and the Condition of Man, based on concepts elaborated by Deleuze