From a Foucauldian perspective, knowledge is effected/affected by complex technologies of power. The power/knowledge-nexus regulates subjectivity and our understanding of the world. The success of e.g. a statement is determined by power-relations, not by its truth-value, as Foucault has shown in the Archeology of Knowledge (Foucault 1972). Thus, a successful statement is not solely depending on 'words', their  grammatical correctness and choice, but rather, as Foucault suggests, by modalities of their existence (Foucault 1972). This view is shared, among others, by Deleuze|Guattari (see Deleuze|Guattari 2004, 83-165). Yet in their readings, there are still possiblities for manouvering differently and perceiving otherwise: Minor literature and political cinema are two examples of productive machines that produces different kind of statements; statements that refrain from truth-claims and give a different account. Minor literature and political cinema thus apply the 'power of the false', a mode of narration that replaces and supersedes the form of the truth, and question the legitimised version of events (see Deleuze 2005, 122-150).

 

How can this formula be understood in the light of Deleuze|Guattari's theory of a Minor Literature and which connections does it grant to contemporary theoretical challenges of truth-claims, as put forward by post-colonial, feminist, and queer theoreticians? Furthermore, what kind of readings are possible with this formula? Thus, I would like to show how three contemporary novels – namely Everything is illuminated (2002) by Jonathan Safran Foer, Gould's Book of Fish (2001) by Richard Flanagan, and The Time of Our Singing (2003) by Richard Powers – give us a competing version of historical events: By respecting the fundamental silence and non-representability of the Shoah (Foer); by writing a different account of Tasmanian history, while showing the distortedness of colonial recordings (Flanagan); and by letting tone – music and colour – break down semiotic systems on which a racialized society is based (Powers). As all the novels in question talk about traumatic events – the Shoah, genocide, and apartheid – in a last step, I want to scrutinize Deleuze|Guattari's theory with the help of the reading-results.Thereby I carve out which possibilities are given in Deleuze|Guattari’s thought-production to speak about traumatic events in which sadness, mourning, and disillusion are certainly asked for.

 

Deleuze, Gilles & Guattari, Félix (2004): A Thousand Plateaus. London, New York: Continuum.

Deleuze, Gilles (2005): The Time Image. Cinema 2. London: Continuum.

Flanagan, Richard (2003). Gould’s Book of Fish. A Novel in Twelve Fish. London: Atlantic Books.

Foer, Jonathan Safran (2003): Everything is illuminated. London, Penguin.

Foucault, Michel (1972): The Archeology of Knowledge. London, New York: Routledge.

Powers, Richard (2003): The Times of Our Singing. London, Vintage.