Writing Sensations, Inscribing Affections: Notes for a minor literary theory according to Gilles Deleuze

Abstract

Literature is not exhausted in its discursive aspects, which means that there is something else, an affection, a set of affections and perceptions that passes through words without, however, being diluted in them. Although it does not exist without language (quid facti), literature produces differential sensations (quid juris) that go beyond discursive logic and the conveyance of enunciation. Beyond the communicational imperative, the characters and landscapes of literature can be described as virtual insistences, which, however, do not make them less real. Literature, or the literary fact, makes sensible the insensible of language as a violence that makes sensible the very limits of our sensibility. It is from these propositions of Gilles Deleuze, therefore, that this essay draws, seeking to make explicit the use of a constellation of concepts that insist on literature's capacity to write sensations, to inscribe affections. "Devir," "Territory," and "Ritornelo" are some of these concepts that serve as guidelines for the hypothesis of a minor literary theory that seeks to map the affections produced by literature. This minor literary theory could also be called an aesthetic of literature.