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A close reading of Deleuze’s major text on desire The engagement of Deleuze with psychoanalysis has led to the development of a remarkable and highly influential theory about human desire. The most systematic account of this theory, crucial for anyone interested in the work of Deleuze and Guattari, can be found in the discussion of the dynamic genesis of sense, a pivotal part of Deleuze’s The Logic of Sense. In Deleuze and Desire Piotrek Świątkowski picks up the challenge to provide an ad literam commentary of this text. Świątkowski makes use of a broad range of examples, from psychoanalytic case studies to art, literature, and film, and analyses in an accessible and clear way the impact of the work of psychoanalysts such as Melanie Klein on Deleuze.

Quentin Meillassoux, like his mentor Alain Badiou, is sometimes accused by his critics of “fetishizing mathematics.” Without necessarily embracing the negative judgment implied in such a charge, this essay asks: what might be gained by taking seriously the link between fetishism and speculative philosophy? The claim that Meillassoux “fetishizes” mathematics potentially reveals something fundamental not only about the formalism at the heart of his speculative realism (whose “glaciality,” inanimacy, or inhuman character might sustain a certain disavowal, namely of “finitude” or castration) but about fetishism itself, whose philosophical character is attested not only by its ideality or relation to the absolute, but by its concern with thought or construction. The aim of this essay is thus not to dwell at length on the work of Meillassoux, but rather to think about the “speculative realism” specific to fetishism itself, and its unique contribution to speculative philosophy.

The paper would like to show how notwithstanding all the critiques moved by Deleuze against Hegelian dialectics and negativity, the question of "Difference" can be very well thought also through the movement of negativity. In doing so, the paper questions the status of the subject in Deleuze and its political fall-outs. Each part is a sort of variation on the same theme, i.e., the structure of subjectivity in Deleuze and if any, its consequences as political subjectivity. The first will tackle the problem of Sado-masochism in dialogue with Freud taking on Deleuze's early work Présentation de Sacher-Masoch, which appears as a key text to understand his core theoretical text Différence et Répétition. The second develops a confrontation between Deleuze and Sartre, observing the similar use of both thinkers of the notions of in-itself (en-soi) and for-itself (pour-soi). Thirdly, one notices a strong parallel between the figure of the "Beautiful Soul" in Hegel and Deleuze's philosophical posture, which has been also admitted and however only partially overcome by Deleuze himself in Difference and Repetition. As a conclusion, and to summarize the themes touched above, a psychopathology of the politics of the distribution of space is attempted, thus showing that, however legitimate a critique of the 'limit' may be, the existence of a political community or subject is in need of a, however flexible and problematized, figure of 'boundary'. This enables one to affirm the richness of the Hegelian notion of Grenze.

Érotisme, société et modernité Résumé De nombreux chercheurs en sciences humaines affirment que Sade est un chercheur avant la lettre. Ils proclament que ses romans révèlent d'une manière agrandie la vérité de la sexualité humaine. Sade a vu que la sexualité a toujours été caractérisée par des tendances destructrices. Dans cet essai, il est argumenté que, selon Roland Barthes, cette thèse est incorrecte. Plus précisément, l'interprétation de Barthes de l'érotisme et de la société de Sade est discutée. Cela montre que la littérature de Sade doit être comprise dans son contexte moderne, et donc qu'elle ne révèle pas une vérité non historique. Abstract Many researchers in humanities argue that Sade is a researcher ahead of his time. They hold that his novels reveal in an exaggerated way the deep truth of human sexuality. It is said that Sade recognized that sexuality has always been characterized by destructive tendencies. In this essay, it is argued that, according to Roland Barthes, this thesis is incorrect. Specifically, Barthes' interpretation of eroticism and society in Sade is discussed. This reveals that Sade's literature must be understood in its modern context, and that therefore it does not reveal an ahistorical truth.

Among the French philosophers who discuss the literature of writer the Marquis de Sade, Maurice Blanchot presents a unique interpretation. For Blanchot, literature is the theme par excellence on which his entire oeuvre has been built. It is not, however, the case that Blanchot reads several literary forms and invents new concepts to map out a certain form of literature. His thinking about literature is indeed accompanied by an ideal and his interest goes out to a particular kind of writer, namely the writer who feels closely related to revolution. This implies that Blanchot is interested in Sade because his literature is both an illustration of a certain ideal, and is stuck in the revolutionary moment of radical negation.

El presente artículo busca explorar la hipótesis de Giorgio Agamben según la cual las prácticas S/M de Michel Foucault y, más ampliamente, su relación con la obra del Marqués de Sade comportan elementos fundamentales para la comprensión del problema de la “gubernamentalidad” y la biopolítica. Utilizando distintas fuentes teóricas, particularmente los análisis de Jacques Lacan sobre Immanuel Kant y el Marqués de Sade, el texto intenta llevar adelante una genealogía del dolor como placer en la teología política cristiana. La influencia de la teología cristiana en las teorías de Sade y Sacher-Masoch es propuesta como hipótesis junto con una identificación de las contribuciones específicamente modernas de estos autores respecto de la sexualidad como problema biopolítico. Finalmente, se propone asimismo una lectura de las teorías de Foucault sobre el S/M para establecer tanto sus vinculaciones con el legado sadiano como la posibilidad de pensar una biopolítica afirmativa.

Against the tendency to privilege the joint works of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari and questions of becoming and flux, nomadism, deterritorialization, lines of flight, and movements of all sorts so often associated with the name Deleuze, I offer this small study.