Non-Representational Theory and Ability

Deleuze & Non-Representational Theory

• Way back in those first lectures, defined “non-representational theory,” which is branch of post-structuralist theory

– While not a completely unified body of work, it centers around the idea that there is more to experience and the world than our current representation system can (or does usually) capture

– This can take a number of different forms: including highlighting feelings/actions/events/ things/beings that rarely get highlighted; to trying to come up with a different system of representation

• Some (especially Anthropologists) have tried to document that there are other representational systems already active, formed by different types of relations with landscapes, usually held by indigenous communities

• It is this formulation of a new representational system that Gilles Deleuze is most associated with: his book with Felix Guattari – A Thousand Plateaus – can be read in any order and tries to make new concepts to replace old ones like “structure” and “network”

– These include assemblage, rhizome, smooth/striated, becoming, affects

Physicality & Ability

• Part of why I assigned Wylie is to highlight that important facet of sports – that they are physical, not solely an excuse to make power-laden representation.

– Playing often causes pain; it is a contest not just between players, but between their actions and the field/game itself

• It can also feel exhilarating when it goes right; without this exhilaration, few would be interested.

– Some people really like the heighten impacts that sports brings; this includes the well-paid athletes to those that make no money at all/

• Sports is, of course, about power and the power of representations; but it is also about the physicality, too.

– For those able to do it well enough, it can be great; it can, of course, also be exclusionary, for those of us not blessed with coordination or bodies that can participate

– It is also an important social practice whose highest echelons are denied to those who are otherwise differently abled

• In some ways, the para-Olympics, Special Olympics, and games like “Murderball” are inclusive and allow many differently-abled people to participate, but far from all

Wylie Questions

1. Is this about power knowledge? History or sociology? Phenomenology? Why or why not?

2. What are “affect” and “precept” according to Wylie (pg. 236)?

3. Why has walking been associated with the male “romantic” subject? (pg 237)

4. What is a fold? (pg 240)

5. What is landscape then?(pg 243)

6. What is the article about, then?