Scan barcode
A review by tgestabrook
Male Fantasies: Volume 1: Women, Floods, Bodies, History by Klaus Theweleit
4.0
This is the best example I have encountered (so far) of Deleuze and Guattari's schizoanalytic theory actually put into practice by someone other than D&G themselves. Theweleit reframes the question of fascism away from theories of ideology, traditional psychoanalysis, or economic reductionism and instead asks "how were fascist bodies formed in the years preceding the third reich? Why were proto-nazis terrified of being overwhelmed by a 'red flood'? Why did Freikorps mercenaries openly manifest erotic satisfaction from horrific acts of murder?". To answer these, he begins with the autobiographical writings of Freikorps soldiers and ends up developing a complex history of patriarchy, colonialism, and the role of sexuality in class conflict.
I do have reservations about Male Fantasies, all stemming from its reliance on Anti-Oedipus - it shares weaknesses with D&G's early work, namely a tendency toward anarchist utopianism, and un- (or under-) critical affirmation of every movement of deterritorialization. Reading it in 2021 with a cursory familiarty with debates around french theory and having read Mark Fisher, Zizek, etc., I was (over?)sensitive to the ways that Theweleits discourse prefigured some aspects of neoliberal anti-communism. Regardless, Male Fantasies is a brillant, well-researched study of fascism, and is definitely worth reading and engaging with.
I do have reservations about Male Fantasies, all stemming from its reliance on Anti-Oedipus - it shares weaknesses with D&G's early work, namely a tendency toward anarchist utopianism, and un- (or under-) critical affirmation of every movement of deterritorialization. Reading it in 2021 with a cursory familiarty with debates around french theory and having read Mark Fisher, Zizek, etc., I was (over?)sensitive to the ways that Theweleits discourse prefigured some aspects of neoliberal anti-communism. Regardless, Male Fantasies is a brillant, well-researched study of fascism, and is definitely worth reading and engaging with.