Acta Structuralica

The relation between Gilles Deleuze and structuralism is a nuanced philosophical problem that resists reductive categorization. In a key text originally written in 1967 and later published under the title À quoi reconnaît-on le structuralisme? (How Do We Recognize Structuralism?), Deleuze undertakes what he describes as a systematic effort to articulate the minimal conditions that define structuralist inquiry and to distill common structuralist procedures and criteria across disciplines. In this essay Deleuze examines linguistic, anthropological, psychoanalytic, and philosophical instances of structuralist methodology and articulates the central conceptual elements — from symbolic systems and differential relations to positional logic — that make structuralism recognizable as a research program.

Far from dismissing structuralism in toto, Deleuze’s early engagement recognizes the analytic efficacy of structural methods and signals the ways these methods illuminate recurrence, difference, and relational determination across domains of inquiry. His work in Différence et répétition (1968) and Logique du sens (1969), both products of the same intellectual moment as his structuralism essay, deploy arguments and figures that resonate with structuralist concerns while also extending them into new ontological territory.

Contemporary commentators — including scholars such as Étienne Balibar and Patrice Maniglier — have emphasized that Deleuze’s apparent shift away from structuralism in later texts (especially after his collaboration with Félix Guattari in L’Anti-Œdipe and Mille plateaux) should not be understood as a simple rejection. Rather, Deleuze’s philosophical development reflexively incorporates and transforms structuralist problems, carrying forward aspects of structuralist thinking even as it problematizes and reconceives structure in terms of multiplicity, dynamism, and the relational constitution of concepts and things. In this view, Deleuze’s thought participates in a continuum that includes classical structuralism, the transformations of the 1960s/1970s, and what later came to be termed post-structuralism — with structuralist legacies enduring even through critical revision.

This special issue aims to deepen philosophical, historical, and interdisciplinary understandings of Deleuze’s relation to structuralism by inviting contributions that clarify, complicate, or rearticulate the continuities and tensions between structuralist frameworks and Deleuzian philosophy. We are especially interested in work that situates Deleuze within structuralist debates — not merely against them — or that uses Deleuzian concepts to revisit foundational questions about structure, difference, system, and relationality in the human and social sciences.

Possible Areas for Contributions

We welcome submissions addressing topics such as (but not limited to):

1. Deleuze’s À quoi reconnaît-on le structuralisme? — analyses of this essay’s criteria for recognizing structuralism and its implications for understanding Deleuze’s early philosophy in relation to structuralist methodologies.

2. Structuralist themes in Deleuze’s major works — explorations of structuralist themes or formal analogues in Différence et répétition, Logique du sens, and subsequent writings.

3. Comparative studies — critical engagements comparing Deleuze’s structuralist affinities with figures like Saussure, Lévi-Strauss, Lacan, Foucault, Althusser, and others whose work contributed to classical structuralism.

4. Beyond the structural/post-structural divide — contributions that rethink the conventional bifurcation between structuralism and post-structuralism, using Deleuzian perspectives to map continuities and divergences.

5. Impact on structuralist and allied disciplines — studies that examine how Deleuzian readings of structuralism have influenced contemporary structuralist scholarship in linguistics, anthropology, semiotics, psychoanalysis, or cognitive theory.

6. Methodological reconstructions — essays that use Deleuzian concepts (difference, multiplicity, rhizome, plane of immanence) to propose new structuralist frameworks or methodological tools for research.

Submission Guidelines

Submissions should be original and unpublished work demonstrating rigorous engagement with both structuralist and Deleuzian texts. Essays may be historical, theoretical, or methodological in orientation but must situate themselves clearly within the broad project of structuralist inquiry. Manuscripts should follow Acta Structuralica’s author guidelines available on the journal’s website.

We particularly encourage interdisciplinary approaches that bring philosophical reflection into productive dialogue with empirical and formal research traditions concerned with structure.

Timeline

• Abstract/Proposal deadline: 15^th February 2026

• Notification of acceptance: 1^st March 2026

• Full manuscript deadline: 15^th October 2026

• Publication: 31^st December 2026

Please send abstracts (300–500 words) to Simone Aurora <simone.aurora@unipd.it> with a short bio by the specified deadline. Full manuscripts typically range from 6,000 to 10,000 words, including notes and references, and should adhere to the journal’s citation and style standards.