Merleau-Ponty and Deleuze, readers of Saussure

Judith Wambacq

pp. 99-117

in: Beata Stawarska, Patrick R. Flack (eds), Merleau-Ponty and structuralism, Acta Structuralica 2, 2018.

Abstract

In this article, I discuss the structuralist dimension in the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Gilles Deleuze. Their common interest in and reference to Ferdinand de Saussure’s linguistics is one of the arguments in favor of a continuity between these philosophies that are all too often considered antipodes. I argue that both Merleau-Ponty’s and Deleuze’s interests in Saussurean linguistics evolve around the latter’s immanent and differential conception of linguistic structures. Moreover, there is also a resonance between both authors’ criticism of Saussure and structuralism. However, it cannot be denied that, in comparison with Merleau-Ponty, Deleuze’s criticism of structuralism is more fierce, especially from the moment he starts collaborating with Guattari. I claim that Deleuze and Guattari were able to think through to the end the problem Merleau-Ponty already detected in Saussurean linguistics. While Merleau-Ponty made a beginning in solving Saussure’s problem, Deleuze and Guattari developed the theoretical tools to finish this attempt.

Cited authors

Merleau-Ponty Maurice

Deleuze Gilles

de Saussure Ferdinand