Deleuze And Children

This collection applies the characterisations of children and childhood made in Deleuze and Guattari's work to concerns that have shaped our idea of the child. Bringing together established and new voices, the authors consider aspects of children's lives such as time, language, gender, affect, religion, atmosphere and schooling.

This book contests a tradition and convention in educational thinking that dichotomises children and curriculum, by developing the notion of re(con)ceiving children in curriculum. By presenting an innovative research project, in which she worked with children to share their understandings of the internationally renowned Te Whāriki curriculum, Marg Sellers explores what the curriculum means to children and how it works, as demonstrated in games they played. In generating different ways for thinking, the author draws upon her work with the philosophical imaginaries of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, whose ideas shape both the content and the non-linear structure of this book. Topics covered include: Rhizomes, rhizo-methodology and rhizoanalysis; Plateaus; De~territorialising lines of flight; Dynamic spaces; The notion of empowerment. This assemblage of Deleuzo-Guattarian imaginaries generates ways for thinking differently about children’s complex interrelationships with curriculum, and opens possibilities for re(con)ceiving – both reconceiving and receiving – children’s understandings within adult conceptions of how curriculum works for young children. This book will be of interest to early childhood students, scholars and practitioners alike, also appealing to those interested in philosophical, theoretical and practical understandings of curriculum in general.

This ground-breaking book connects apparently disparate subjects; the very young learning child in the field of early childhood education and the thinking of Deleuze and Guattari in the field of philosophy.

This book presents a critical reimagining of education and educational research in addressing practices of representation and their relation to epistemology, subjectivity and ontology in the context of early childhood education. Drawing on posthumanist perspectives and the immanent materialism of Deleuze & Guattari to conceive of early childhood education, childhood and indeed, adult life, in new ways, it highlights the powerful role of language in subjectivity and ontology, and introduces affectensity as a concept which can be put to work to undo habitual relations and meanings. It proposes that ethical becomings require the engagement of an expansion and intensification of a body’s affect or capacity, and offers readers a provocation for enhancing creative capacity as an ethic. This book is an important contribution to the discussions on methods for living and of ways of thinking commensurate with the orientation of a posthuman turn.

Jane Newland focuses on children's texts by some of the authors who fascinate Deleuze, including Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Lewis Carroll, André Dhôtel, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio and Michel Tournier. They are explored across chapters on central Deleuzian concepts: pure repetition, becoming, cartographies, stuttering and nonsense.

Communism, capitalism, work, crisis, and the market, described in simple storybook terms and illustrated by drawings of adorable little revolutionaries. Once upon a time, people yearned to be free of the misery of capitalism. How could their dreams come true? This little book proposes a different kind of communism, one that is true to its ideals and free from authoritarianism. Offering relief for many who have been numbed by Marxist exegesis and given headaches by the earnest pompousness of socialist politics, it presents political theory in the simple terms of a children's story, accompanied by illustrations of lovable little revolutionaries experiencing their political awakening. It all unfolds like a story, with jealous princesses, fancy swords, displaced peasants, mean bosses, and tired workers–not to mention a Ouija board, a talking chair, and a big pot called “the state.” Before they know it, readers are learning about the economic history of feudalism, class struggles in capitalism, different ideas of communism, and more. Finally, competition between two factories leads to a crisis that the workers attempt to solve in six different ways (most of them borrowed from historic models of communist or socialist change). Each attempt fails, since true communism is not so easy after all. But it's also not that hard. At last, the people take everything into their own hands and decide for themselves how to continue. Happy ending? Only the future will tell. With an epilogue that goes deeper into the theoretical issues behind the story, this book is perfect for all ages and all who desire a better world.

Jane Newland focuses on children's texts by some of the authors who fascinate Deleuze, including Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Lewis Carroll, André Dhôtel, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio and Michel Tournier. They are explored across chapters on central Deleuzian concepts: pure repetition, becoming, cartographies, stuttering and nonsense.

This volume joins the pragmatic philosophy of Deleuze to current affairs. The twelve new essays in this volume use a contemporary context to think through and with Deleuze. Engaging the here and now, the contributors use the Deleuzian theoretical apparatus to think about issues such as military activity in the Middle East, refugees, terrorism, information and communication, and the State. The book is aimed both at specialists of Deleuze and those who are unfamiliar with his work but who are interested in current affairs. Incorporating political theory and philosophy, culture studies, sociology, international studies, and Middle Eastern studies, the book is designed to appeal to a wide audience.