We Are Already Dead. Long May We Live!: Death as Event in Koos Prinsloo's Metropolis

In this article, I think about death as "event" by reading Koos Prinsloo through the three syntheses of time - Habit, Mnemosyne and Thanatos - as explicated by philosopher Gilles Deleuze in Difference and Repetition, as well as work done with his sometimes co-author, Félix Guattari. I argu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of literary studies (Pretoria, South Africa) Vol. 35; no. 1; pp. 124 - 142
Main Author: Gray, Chantelle
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Routledge 02.01.2019
ISSN:0256-4718, 1753-5387
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:In this article, I think about death as "event" by reading Koos Prinsloo through the three syntheses of time - Habit, Mnemosyne and Thanatos - as explicated by philosopher Gilles Deleuze in Difference and Repetition, as well as work done with his sometimes co-author, Félix Guattari. I argue that Prinsloo's oeuvre provides a critical and clinical function that can provide methods for releasing jouissance so that the death drive can be re-directed. Thus, whereas the critical function engages literary figures, styles and ways of being, as well as Kant's understanding of critique, the clinical provides a symptomatology of life potentiality in a given work. Together, these function to identify the genesis of life as a creative force and, in so doing, restores healthy living.
ISSN:0256-4718
1753-5387
DOI:10.1080/02564718.2019.1583441