New Naturalism of Herzog and Deleuze

Abstract

This article reviews distinctive elements of Werner Herzog’s naturalism and endeavors to analyse it within a philosophical framework that has Gilles Deleuze’s ideas as primary referent. Deleuze’s discussion of Stoic philosophy, specifically the concept of quasi-causality, will be a critical mainstay for this reading of Herzog. The axial objective is to determine how an immanent construction of reality, or what I will call genesis, is the subject matter of both Herzog’s speculative and imaginative naturalism and Deleuze’s pluralistic realism. This notion demands that we direct our attention to the manner in which Herzog's protagonists are all mad in a way, all the while focusing on how this madness helps to forge the distinctive characteristics of his aesthetic creation. As a result, we find in Herzog a peculiar kind of agency, different from rational or causal agency. Here, drives and impulses inform decisions and incite the characters to take action. Consequently, I aim to demonstrate the existence of an affinity between this agency in Herzog and the notion of quasi-causality in Deleuze’s reading of the Stoics.

Keywords

• Herzog
• Deleuze
• naturalism
• quasi-causality
• destiny