James Williams, (Dundee)
Deleuze, Péguy and the Event in Literature
This paper traces Deleuze’s intriguing references, in Difference and Repetition, to Charles Péguy’s Clio
(posthumously published in 1917, though likely to have been finished in 1912). Most, but not all of the
references occur when Deleuze is discussing the idea of events. This is important because Clio, though
advancing a significant thesis on events, is also a book on the relations between art, politics and history
(notably in Hugo and the Dreyfus affair). The intersections on events between the two thinkers are set
against striking contrasts, for example, in Péguy’s distinctive anti-clerical Christianity developed in
terms of the relation of glory to history in Clio. These surface contrasts are themselves set against
subtle distinctions in the philosophy of time in relation to history as captured in works of art. The paper
sets up a series of arguments around these distinctions, in particular in terms of the timeliness of works,
their relation to death and passing away, and opposing views of the nature of ideas (in particular in
relation to the virtual – Clio, like Difference and Repetition is strongly influenced by Bergson). In
conclusion, the paper will try to show how the relation between the two books is not one of a limited
borrowing but of a deep engagement.