Gilles Deleuze /

Colebrook (English literature, Edinburgh) has written an excellent introductory text on one of the most important, and difficult, recent French philosophers. It is part of the excellent series "Routledge Critical Thinkers: Essential Guides for Literary Studies." This volume meets the series' goal of offering a clear and accessible introduction to a major critical thinker's key ideas, major texts, intellectual evolution, and impact on the field of literary studies and the humanities in general. Colebrook discusses all the central Deleuzian ideas--becoming, desire, powers of thought, the machinic, simulacra--and pays particular attention to Deleuze's views on cinema and literature. The strength of this little book is its clarity and lucidity. An invaluable introductory guide for all readers of Deleuze, it will be particularly helpful to those interested in seeing how Deleuze's thinking affects literary studies. Students of philosophy may find the limited attention to Deleuze's philosophical roots (in Spinoza, Bergson, and Nietzsche) unfortunate, but they too will profit from Colebrook's explications and her applications of Deleuzian themes to literary and cinematic analyses. With a brief, but helpful, annotated bibliography, this text will serve well as a first introduction to Deleuze's thought and should be found in every academic library. Recommended for general readers through researchers and faculty. A. D. Schrift Grinnell College