Herzogenrath, Bernd (Hrsg.): Time and History in Deleuze and Serres

For Gilles Deleuze, time is 'out of joint'. For Michel Serres, it is 'a crumpled handkerchief'. In both of these concepts, explicit references are made to the non-linear dynamics of Chaos and Complexity theory, as well as the New Sciences. The groundbreaking work of these key thinkers has the potential to instigate a radical break from traditional existentialist theories of time and history, affording us the opportunity to view history and historical events as a complex, non-linear system of feedback-loops, couplings and interfaces. In this collection, the first to address the comparative historiographies of Deleuze and Serres, twelve leading experts - including William Connolly, Eugene Holland, Claire Colebrook and Elizabeth Grosz - examine these alternative concepts of time and history, exposing critical arguments in this important and emerging field of research.All in all, this is a very nice collection of essays, and combined they do offer a convincing case that bringing the concepts of Deleuze and Serres together can reorient our thinking of both Deleuze and Serres in a number of important ways. One can also find, in Herzogenrath and Berressem's final two essays of the collection, important readings of Henry Adams that nicely complement the earlier essays.