Gilles Deleuze's philosophy of art : the cruelty of affect

Abstract

In this work the influential contemporary French philosopher Gilles Deleuze' s aesthetic theory has been analysed with regard to its philosophical origins. Baruch Spinoza, whose influence is felt in the whole of Deleuze' s ouevre, proves to be the basic figure of his approach to art as well. Gilles Deleuze sets out to formulate a vitalist theory of art, the scope of which requires that the categories of judgement and reception be displaced. This scope situates artistic activity in a generalised creativity, where reception and judgement find their places as points of break and tension which could still be examined within the system of creation.