Characters: notes on Deleuze and modernist novel

Abstract

Deleuze's contributions reveal new dimensions in modernist literature. For many Modernist writers, what conscience can capture is less relevant than what affects the body; this conviction gives birth to the multiplication of characters difficult to classify. The essay's first section explores the relationships between "event" and "character"; the second one traces Nietzsche's reflections on Zarathustra; the third section is devoted to the notion of original character in Melville; the fourth section presents some of Lawrence's ideas about characters as governed by impersonal forces; and the last section focuses on Virginia Woolf's views of the absent character.

characters; modernism; event; inspiration; Impressionism