The Transversal Power of Collaboration in the Production of Critical Theory

Abstract

This paper will explore the power that collaboration has to free academics from the ‘grip of authority’ during the writing process. It will also consider the way in which collaboration mitigates the constraining influence of the authority implied by the text. Felix Guattari indicates the power of group creativity when he distinguishes between subject-groups and subjugated-groups in his work on institutional dynamics. The key difference between the terms is the fact that subjugated-groups deny interaction between the members of the group, while subject-groups allow each individual to use the rest of the group as a mirror. Through interaction, the subject-group can generate intersubjective experiences, which will allow the individual to think transversally, that is, beyond the structures that usually guide their thinking. Bryan Reynolds draws heavily upon Guattari in his application of transversality to literary criticism. Intersubjectivity is also a crucial transversal tool for Reynolds, as he illustrates with his use of collaboration in the production of his work. Reynolds argues, in line with Guattari, that collaboration generates intersubjectivity and consequently dissolves impasses in the mind. Through engagement with other thinkers, we can neutralise our own conceptual constraints, and produce ideas that are not delimited by the authorities that restrict us. A co-authored text can also produce transversal thinking in the reader. Using deconstructive theories of Jacques Derrida, I will argue that coauthored texts prevent us from mitigating the significance of the work by reading it through our understanding of the author as a transcendental signifier (a stable, complete, authoritative entity). This lack of circumscription can allow for freer and more creative analyses by future readers and critics.