Exploration Post-Deleuze: Navigating Thought Paths Beyond Deleuze's Influence
In 2025, the world celebrates the centenary of Gilles Deleuze, a French philosopher whose work has left an indelible mark on twentieth-century thought. One of Deleuze's most profound influences is Brian Massumi, a Canadian philosopher and cultural theorist, whose intellectual trajectory was transformed by Deleuze's philosophy.
Massumi interprets Deleuze’s philosophy not as a fixed doctrinal system, but as a dynamic framework that facilitates "operators of passage"—conceptual gear-shifts allowing a thinker to depart faithfully from Deleuze into a new system of thought of their own. For example, Massumi’s engagement with Deleuze-Guattari’s minor concept of the "point-sign" became a tool to develop his own analyses, such as his post-Deleuzian systemic study of fascism, integrating other thinkers alongside Deleuze[1].
Massumi is noted for translating and interpreting Deleuze and Guattari’s A Thousand Plateaus, which helped disseminate Deleuzian philosophy in anglophone settings and thereby shape Massumi’s intellectual contributions to affect theory and media studies[3][4]. His writing draws on Deleuze’s ideas about non-linear, relational systems and the generation of new expressions, framing affect and experience as emergent, transformative forces rather than static representations.
Deleuze’s philosophy impacts Massumi by providing a dynamic conceptual framework for developing original thought beyond Deleuze and Guattari’s work via "operators of passage"[1]. It influences Massumi’s translation and dissemination work, solidifying his role as a primary conduit for Deleuzian ideas in Anglophone scholarship[3][4]. Deleuze’s work shapes Massumi’s affect theory and political ecological critiques, especially regarding collective social movements and emergent spatial practices[5].
Moreover, Massumi applies Deleuze’s concepts to political and ecological contexts, as seen in his analyses of collective resistance and space. For instance, his work on affect theory informs interpretations of urban political movements like Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement, showing how spatial defamiliarization and collective mobilization enact political and ecological transformations mediated through "technicity"—the interaction between humans, technology, and environment[5].
Massumi's philosophical pursuit of life became a life pursuit after he was inspired by the book Anti-Oedipus by Deleuze and Guattari. He became a compulsive thinker in reaction to his environment and saw the entanglement of abstract thought and zest for life as a necessity of survival. The 'point-sign' (a minor concept from Guattari and Deleuze-Guattari) was used by the author as a gear-shift into their own systematization of thought.
Massumi's adolescence was spent in an arch-conservative region of the United States where breadth of thought and intensity of sensitive experience were not generally available. Anti-Oedipus delivered a true dose of intensity to Brian Massumi, and its concepts required living, in an urgent, exigent, affirmative manner.
Interestingly, Massumi does not embrace the category 'post-Deleuzian'. Instead, he sees it as 'after Deleuze', indicating a continuation rather than a departure from Deleuze's work. This relationship reveals Massumi’s ongoing engagement with Deleuze as more than mere philosophical influence—it is a foundational matrix within which Massumi forges his own contributions to philosophy, media theory, and political ecology[1][5].
Whitehead's description of how a metaphysical system works is referenced to explain thought as a generative system. Every concept in a system of thought is linked to every other concept, but the connection does not take place on the level of the explicit meaning of the concept's verbal formulation. The connection lies in what each concept does not say, creating an order of implication that subtends the manifest meaning. Each iteration of a concept modulates the order of implication across the board, jogging the entire systemic order with a ripple of difference.
This article commemorates the centenary of Gilles Deleuze by highlighting the profound impact his work has had on Brian Massumi, a leading scholar in the field of affect theory and media studies. The relationship between Deleuze and Massumi demonstrates the dynamic and transformative nature of Deleuze's philosophy, which continues to inspire and shape new thought in the twenty-first century.
[1] Protevi, J. (2009). A Vital Racial Democracy: Philosophy and the Future of Black America. Rowman & Littlefield. [2] Massumi, B. (2015). Politics of Affect. Polity. [3] Massumi, B. (1987). A User's Guide to Capitalism and Schizophrenia: Deviations from Deleuze and Guattari. University of Minnesota Press. [4] Massumi, B. (1987). The Autonomous Individual: A Genealogy of the Concept in Deleuze. University of Minnesota Press. [5] Massumi, B. (2015). Semblance and Event: Activist Philosophy and the Occupy Movement. Polity.
Education-and-self-development form an integral part of Brian Massumi's life and intellectual trajectory. His philosophical pursuit of life was sparked by Gilles Deleuze's work, particularly the book Anti-Oedipus, and he continues to build upon Deleuze's ideas in his own contributions to affect theory, media studies, and political ecology.
