Difference and Repetition in Deleuze's Proustian Sign and Time Machine

The French poststructural philosopher Gilles Deleuze is well-known as the author of ”Difference and Repetition” (1969), but perhaps the best introduction to his thought on difference and repetition in literature is his ”Proust and Signs”, which in its third edition (1976) provides accounts of both the interpretation and the production of signs in Proust's ”Recherche”. A sign is a difference that unfolds itself, and its unfolding is an ongoing repetition of its difference. The interpretation of signs proceeds via an unfolding of differences, and in the ”Recherche” the signs of art reveal the truth of difference and induce a retroactive reinterpretation of all signs. The production of the signs of art entails the formation of a machine that emits repeating differences. Such a machine creates unity as an after-effect through the invention of transversals, which disclose connections between signs that the work of art alone can activate.