Abstract

Deleuze’s concepts are inherently relational, inseparable from their interrelations within and between the works in which they are developed. The concept of the refrain is no exception. Moreover, the following notes outline how this concept can be seen to concentrate and summarize Deleuze’s philosophical development after his encounter with Guattari. This can be summed up with the formula “refrain = expression + territory”. This means that Deleuze’s univocal ontology of expression – the single Event speaking all events – is compromised as global structure, now favouring instead the concrete analysis of assemblages operating as nontotalizable multiplicities. A decidedly practical “logic of multiplicities” tied to inter- and intra-territorial relations replaces a generalized ontology of force wedded solely to the expressive principle of eternal return. Through this “logic”, Deleuze and Guattari trace a line from territorial animals to art and the contemporary demand for “self-”expression. In doing so, they fundamentally alter Deleuze’s earlier reading of Nietzsche, subtracting the eternal return (as the being of force) from the practical construct. Through the refrain, it is now the practical construct that constructs itself as the being of force. Yet, as concept, the refrain’s tendency toward self-transcendence nonetheless sits uneasily with the subtractive character of practical multiplicities – this irresolvable tension between concept and construct lying at the heart of Deleuze and Guattari’s own collaboration.