Abstract
Assemblage, as it is used in Deleuze and Guattari’s work, is a concept dealing with the play of contingency and structure, organization and change; however, we should also keep in mind that these pairs of terms are false alternatives (D: 99).1 The term in French is agencement, usually translated as “putting together”, “arrangement”, “laying out”, “layout” or “fitting’ (Cousin et al. 1990: 9-10). It is important that agencement is not a static term; it is not the arrangement or organization but the process of arranging, organizing, fitting together. The term as it is used in Deleuze and Guattari’s work is commonly translated as assemblage: that which is being assembled.2 An assemblage is not a set of predetermined parts (such as the pieces of a plastic model aeroplane) that are then put together in order or into an already-conceived structure (the model aeroplane). Nor is an assemblage a random collection of things, since there is a sense that an assemblage is a whole of some sort that expresses some identity and claims a territory. An assemblage is a becoming that brings elements together.
Original language | English (US) |
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Title of host publication | Gilles Deleuze |
Subtitle of host publication | Key Concepts: Second Edition |
Publisher | Taylor and Francis |
Pages | 91-102 |
Number of pages | 12 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781317547839 |
ISBN (Print) | 9781844652877 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 1 2014 |
Externally published | Yes |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Arts and Humanities