© 2002 by Society for French Studies
VITESSES DE L'IMAGE, PUISSANCES DE LA PENSÉE: LA PHILOSOPHIE ÉPICURIENNE REVUE PAR DELEUZE ET GUATTARI
1 Université de Paris VIII – Vincennes À Saint-Dennis
Deleuze's work on the image has recently attracted considerable attention both in the field of philosophy and media or art studies. In this text, I argue that the Deleuzian image is genetic rather than mimetic – hence a radical break with representational philosophies, even in their most 'deconstructed' contemporary form. It is well known that Deleuze's conception of the image owes much to the philosophy of Henri Bergson (Deleuze is particularly indebted to the first chapter of Matière et mémoire, where Bergson outlines a 'convergent' theory of the relation between the image and matter). Yet Deleuze consistently conceives of the image in terms of speed and this points to a further source in Epicurian philosophy (including both the works of Epicurus and his Latin disciple Lucretius). It is with reference to the Epicurian method of 'analogy and grading' that Deleuze establishes a scale of image and thought in terms of speed. According to this scale, the highest power attainable by thought can be figured as an infinite speed, and when the image reaches this summit it becomes both virtual and self-generating. The virtual image creates its own universe, via a movement of perpetual exchange with other images, and yet remains purely dissipative, that is to say, dispossessed of all chronological presence. This scale also allows Deleuze to derive the world of representational thought through a process of speed-reduction – what Deleuze calls the world or the face is for him the result of a simple loss in speed. To the extent that the construction of the plane of immanence involves an infinite acceleration of thought, the fundamental gesture of Deleuzian philosophy could be characterized as a dissolution of the face (of the other).