The Status of Animality in Deleuze's Thought

Abstract

Animals are omnipresent in Deleuze‘s work, and throughout Deleuze and Guattari‘s common body of work: the tick‘s world, the assemblage (agencement) of the wasp and orchid, the spider‘s prehension of the fly, the cat who knows better than the human how to die, the multiplicity of the wolf, the affects of Little Hans‘ horse, spiny lobsters‘ nomadism and bird-artists. Insects, mammals, crustaceans and birds are such an integral part of Deleuzian and Deleuzo-Guattarian thought that these thinkers even created a concept in these animals‘ honor: the becoming-animal.