Gilles Deleuze's Luminous Philosophy

Develops the notion of 'luminism' as the conceptual spine of Deleuze's work 'The plane of immanence is entirely made up of Light', Deleuze writes in Cinema 1: The Movement-Image. Engaging the whole body of Deleuze's work, including less rehearsed texts such as The Actual and the Virtual, Lucretius and the Simulacrum and his lectures on Spinoza, Hanjo Berressem traces the 'line of light' that runs through Deleuze's thought. The focus on the philosophical luminism that suffuses Deleuze's work delivers a novel reading of Deleuzian philosophy from the perspective of the complementarity of the photon. Berressem reveals a wealth of surprising and brilliant insights for anyone with an interest in Deleuze and in the implications of Deleuze's philosophical photonics for historiography, literary studies, painting and film. Hanjo Berressem is Professor of American Studies at the University of Cologne, Germany.