The war machine and the development of the State: An Amalia de José Marmol’s interpretation from the philosophical perspective of Deleuze and Guattari

Abstract

War machine and state are two fundamental concepts in the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari insofar as they represent two ways of being and becoming of human reality. The becoming of the State, in the sense of capturing, striate and rule the life can be seen mainly from two perspectives: a macro (major historical and political movements) and micro (individuals playing as such and making their lifes as a set of unique assemblages, molecular). The purpose of this article is to show how the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari help to critically understand one of the fundamental cores of the novel Amalia by Jose Mármol, namely: the state constitution in a specific territory (Argentina) to the extent as it captures the war machine and made it functional to its future and realization. The thesis of this work is, at this level of understanding, as follows: The war between federalists and centralists told in the novel can be understood as the way in which the Argentine state is constituted from contradictions, singularities and pluralities represented by the actions of his protagonists. The war machine remains and remains even though what constitutes, from the point of view of “world history”, is the modern nation state.