Ontology and Perversion : Deleuze, Agamben, Lacan

This volume represents the first over-arching assessment of perversion as a philosophical category, offering a comparative analysis of Deleuze, Agamben and Lacan’s readings of the relationship between perversion, ontology and politics.

What is perversion? How does it emerge within contemporary thought, politics and culture? To what extent might it be possible to speak of a politics, aesthetics or even ontology of perversion? This book examines the philosophical and political relevance of perversion in the works of three key representatives of contemporary philosophy and psychoanalysis: Gilles Deleuze, Giorgio Agamben and Jacques Lacan. Perversion is often understood simply in terms of cultural or sexual phenomena. By contrast, Bostjan Nedoh places perversion at the heart of philosophical and political issues in the works Deleuze, Agamben and Lacan. It examines the relevance of their discussions of perversion for their respective philosophical projects (Deleuze, Agamben) or for the critique of philosophy (Lacan). By tracing the differences between these thinkers'' understanding of perversion, the book finally draws lines of delimitation between the vitalist and the structuralist or psychoanalytic philosophical positions in contemporary philosophy.