DOI: 10.4231/qyd2-1t94
title: Cinema: On the Classification of Signs and Time: Lecture 19, 03 May 1983

description: &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Deleuze Seminars&lt;/em&gt; is a collection of audio recordings, transcriptions, and English translations of, and supplemental materials from, the lectures French philosopher Gilles Deleuze gave during his career at the University of Paris 8.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&ldquo;Cinema: On the Classification of Signs and Time&rdquo; was a 23-lecture seminar given from November 1982 to June 1983. This seminar revisits many of the main themes from the previous year&rsquo;s seminar (&quot;Cinema 1: The Movement-Image&quot;), and Deleuze commences the year by explaining that whereas he usually changes topics from one year to the next, he feels compelled to continue with the current topic and, in fact, to undertake a process of &ldquo;philosophy in the manner of cows, rumination&hellip; I want entirely and truly to repeat myself, to start over by repeating myself.&rdquo; Hence, the 1982-83 Seminar consists in once again taking up Bergson&rsquo;s theses on perception, but now with greater emphasis on the aspects of classification of images and signs drawn from C.S. Peirce. This allows Deleuze to continue the shift from considering the movement-image, that dominated early 20th century cinema, toward a greater understanding of the post-World War II emphasis on the time-image.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;After Georges Comtesse provides a counter-perspective on &ldquo;lost time,&rdquo; Deleuze responds by developing the interiority of time, reflecting supporting perspectives drawn from Leibniz, P&eacute;guy, and Bergson. Moreover, to another Comtesse question, Deleuze contrasts narrative point of view in Balzac and Proust, returning after 90 minutes of such responses to the dual aspects of the indirect image of time. Deleuze designates a first type of the image&rsquo;s chronosigns as the &ldquo;dynamic sublime&rdquo;, i.e. the interval as variable present, the qualitative leap between instants; then, a second type as the interior of time or mathematical sublime, i.e. the Whole of time. Beyond these chronosigns, Deleuze outlines the corresponding indirect figures of thought, or &ldquo;noosigns&rdquo;, asking what does a &ldquo;manner of thinking&rdquo; mean? Thinking is then conceived as a battle with shadows preventing thought, having the figure for perpetual recommencement of the thought battle in the &ldquo;counterbrand&rdquo; (&lt;em&gt;contremarque&lt;/em&gt;). Given the dialectic nature of the thought-battle, Deleuze broaches Hegel in some detail, to whom Deleuze opposes the &ldquo;heads or tails&rdquo; noosign, the alternative espoused by Pascal, with both Hegel&rsquo;s and Pascal&rsquo;s views to be developed in the next session.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This dataset includes an aggregate version of the audio recordings into a single mp3, the complete French transcription and English translation in Open Document (odt) format, and the original Paris 8 French transcript.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;-&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Les S&eacute;minaires de Deleuze&lt;/em&gt; sont une collection d&#39;enregistrements audio, de transcriptions et de traductions en anglais et de documents compl&eacute;mentaires des conf&eacute;rences que le philosophe fran&ccedil;ais Gilles Deleuze a donn&eacute; lors de sa carri&egrave;re &agrave; l&#39;Universit&eacute; de Paris 8.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&laquo; Cin&eacute;ma: de la classification des signes et le temps &raquo; a &eacute;t&eacute; un s&eacute;minaire de 23 conf&eacute;rences donn&eacute; de novembre 1982 &agrave; juin 1983. Ce s&eacute;minaire a repris certains des th&egrave;mes principaux du s&eacute;minaire de l&#39;ann&eacute;e pr&eacute;c&eacute;dente (&laquo; L&rsquo;image-mouvement, Leҫons bergsoniennes sur le cin&eacute;ma &raquo;), et en offre d&#39;autres consid&eacute;rations. Dans ces conf&eacute;rences, Deleuze examine le cin&eacute;ma et la philosophie bergsonienne vis-&agrave;-vis d&#39;une gamme de philosophes, des modernes aux existentialistes. Deleuze discute &eacute;galement de nombreux artistes et &eacute;crivains qui apparaissent dans les autres s&eacute;minaires sue le cin&eacute;ma.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Apr&egrave;s une contre-perspective sur le &laquo; temps perdu &raquo; pr&eacute;sent&eacute;e par Georges Comtesse, Deleuze r&eacute;pond en d&eacute;veloppant l&rsquo;int&eacute;riorit&eacute; du temps, s&rsquo;appuyant sur le soutien de Leibniz, P&eacute;guy et Bergson. De plus, &agrave; une autre question de Comtesse, Deleuze oppose le point de vue narratif de Balzac et de Proust, revenant apr&egrave;s 90 minutes de telles r&eacute;ponses aux aspects doubles de l&rsquo;image indirecte du temps. Deleuze d&eacute;signe un premier type de chronosignes de l&rsquo;image comme le &laquo; sublime dynamique &raquo;, c&rsquo;est-&agrave;-dire l&rsquo;intervalle comme pr&eacute;sent variable, le saut qualitatif entre les instants ; puis un deuxi&egrave;me type comme l&rsquo;int&eacute;rieur du temps ou le sublime math&eacute;matique, c&rsquo;est-&agrave;-dire le Tout du temps. Au-del&agrave; de ces chronosignes, Deleuze esquisse les figures indirectes correspondantes de la pens&eacute;e, ou &laquo; noosignes &raquo;, en demandant, ce que signifie une &laquo; mani&egrave;re de penser &raquo; ? La pens&eacute;e est ainsi con&ccedil;ue comme une bataille avec des ombres emp&ecirc;chant la pens&eacute;e, la &laquo; contremarque &raquo; &eacute;tant la figure du perp&eacute;tuel recommencement de la bataille de la pens&eacute;e. &Eacute;tant donn&eacute; la nature dialectique de la bataille de pens&eacute;e, Deleuze aborde Hegel en d&eacute;tail, &agrave; qui Deleuze oppose le noosign &laquo; pile ou face &raquo;, l&rsquo;alternative adopt&eacute;e par Pascal, les vues de Hegel et de Pascal devant &ecirc;tre d&eacute;velopp&eacute;es lors de la prochaine s&eacute;ance.&lt;/p&gt;
description: Lecture given by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze at the University of Paris 8, 03 May 1983. This is lecture 19 of a 23-lecture seminar Deleuze taught between November 1982 and June 1983.