The Question of Capitalist Desire: Deleuze and Guattari with Marx

Abstract

This paper offers a reading of Marx with Deleuze and Guattari That highlights the importance of the latter’s reading of desire back into Marx’s work in such a way as to show the importance of thinking the role of capitalist desire in the production and reproduction of the capitalist system. I argue here for the importance of understanding the commodification of desire under capitalism as a material process and not merely an ideological one. This demonstrates the importance of continuing to read Marx (both the early Marx of the Manuscripts and the Late Marx of Capital) when thinking through Deleuze and Guattari’s own critiques of capitalism. At the same time this article helps us see the relevance of Deleuze and Guattari’s understanding of desire in helping make sense of Marx’s own analysis of the capitalist machine in a way that allows us to better understand the role that desire plays in Marx’s texts.