between analyst and analysand is indeed a power relation, as is any relationship
between doctor and patient. To approach these relations through the
interlocutory exchanges between the two parties and the power relations that
are operative in them is a good way of accounting for them, going beyond
the image which the participants – especially the analysts – seek to project.
And it has the advantage of involving a philosophy of language that places
the concept of power relations at the centre of its reflection. On this point, as
on so many others, Voloshinov has had at least two successors: Deleuze and
Guattari.
- Deleuze and Guattari and Marxism
I have already referred to the work of Deleuze and Guattari on two occasions.
I used their critique of linguistics at the beginning of Chapter 2 and I cited
their reading of Lenin’s text on slogans in the final section of Chapter 4. This
is because I believe that we can find in their work – especially in A Thousand
Plateaus– the outline of a Marxist philosophy of language. This poses two
questions: are my authors in fact Marxists (or am I in the process of press-
ganging them)? And how exactly does the philosophy of language implicitly,
and sometimes explicitly, to be found in their work help me to construct a
Marxist philosophy of language? I am going to deal with these two questions
in order.
A Marxist opens Anti-Oedipusat page one. She is immediately plunged
into an exotic universe, totally foreign to her. Certainly, it functions, but it
eats, it shits, it fucks, and so on. These activities are not alien to Marxists, but
they are not in the habit of theorising them. However, if Marxists persevere
in their reading, they will discover familiar aspects to this universe. The ‘it’
which shits and fucks, but which also produces, is a machine, a set of machines.
And our Marxist has crossed at least two thresholds, the title of the first part
- ‘Desiring Production’ – and the title of the whole work of which Anti-
Oedipusis the first volume – ‘Capitalism and Schizophrenia’. Therein lies the
problem for Marxists who read Deleuze and Guattari: they are threatened by
a form of schizophrenia, inscribed in the ‘and’ of the title. Yes, there are
machines (a concept which does not leave Marxists indifferent), but they are
desiring machines: an analysis of capitalism is indeed foreshadowed, but in
its relations with schizophrenia. Once the surprise is over, Marxists will note
118 • Chapter Five