Germinal Life : The Difference and Repetition of Deleuze

This text is the companion volume to Keith Ansell Pearson's "Viroid Life".

Taking its orientation from the thought of Gilles Deleuze, it embarks on a tour of ethology, biology, ethics, literature and cyborgs.

Opening with a linking of Richard Dawkin's theory of the extended phenotype and Deleuzian thought, Keith Ansell Pearson introduces the idea of germinal life to challenge traditional notions of ethology and philosophy.

By revisiting 19th-century Darwinism and the origins of germ science, Keith Ansell Pearson develops a reading of Deleuze's key texts.

He also introduces interpretations of classic modern literature, including Thomas Hardy's "Tess" and D.H.Lawrence's "Kangaroo" before connecting these themes with cyborgism and the work of the performance artist Stelarc.