Conclusion: Degrees of Freedom

Abstract

This book has developed the theorization of the aesthetic of verbal art. The purpose of this theorization has not been to create a formula for creative writing—that is, for artistic practice—but to consider the literary in respect to questions of ethics and politics. Such a theorization, however, might also come to inform pedagogical practice. The theorization of the literary, like Guattari’s own theorization, has not been done in order to arrive at stable systems of analysis (of the literary) but to open up the field to an ever-changing and differently focused exploration of the aesthetic. Rather than criticism, the activity of this book has been the analysis and theorization of the literary function for the way in which it has something to teach other fields, including those that theorize subjectivity, community, and pedagogy. The literary has been considered in light of possible ways of being that might set us free or make us freer. In doing so, the literary has been considered in terms of strategies and self-governmentality that result in the formation of subjectification. In what follows, I consider the key aspects of the literary function, in relation to key questions raised by this text, such as the questions of capture and equivalence. In doing so, I briefly consider the work of American writer Bret Easton Ellis and British musician Tricky.