Deleuze and American (Mythopoeic) literature

Authors

Ian Buchanan, University of WollongongFollow

RIS ID

64483

Publication Details

Buchanan, I. 2001, 'Deleuze and American (Mythopoeic) literature', Southern Review, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 72-85.

Abstract

Deleuze's love of American literature is well known, but rarely discussed with much specificity. In fact, Deleuze did not love American literature tout court, but only a very select number of texts which characteristically he treated as the only" true" instances of American literature. In particular he was attracted to what is known as mythopoeic literature, that is, literature which reconfigures the historical in archetypal terms, the implication being that both history and literature are but shadows or reflections of some prior event, which is at once the origin and secret meaning of the text concerned. Just why he should have found such works so interesting is a question that has so far been too little discussed.