Writing a thesis differently

Abstract

In this paper we explore the contributions that Deleuze and Guattari have made to thinking/writing language and how these ideas can be put to work in producing a doctoral thesis. We contribute to the field of work within what Patti Lather and Elizabeth St Pierre have called the “post-qualitative” movement, where researchers attempt to “imagine and accomplish an inquiry that might produce different knowledge and produce knowledge differently”. We attempt to rethink the thesis text, using a language where language always falls apart, a way of talking/writing/reading about presentation of research within a doctoral thesis that will provide the writermachine a space to “pass”. The paper will provide some ideas and ways forward for writers who are attempting to deterritorialize research, who are attempting to experiment with new representational forms.

Keywords:

• Doctoral thesis writing
• deleuze and language
• post-qualitative research methods
• rhizomatic methods
• tetralinguistic discourses

Notes

1. We are writing this paper from Australia, where students undertaking a Doctor of Philosophy embark on a 3 ½ to 4-year study that culminates in a thesis document between 80,000 and 90,000 words, sent out for external examination to 2 or 3 readers, international or domestic, who are judged to be expert in the field.

2. Gobard’s work cited by Deleuze and Guattari is Gobard, H. (1976). L'aliénation linguistique. Paris, Flammarion. Gobard’s work is only available in French and therefore cannot be directly cited in this paper.

3. Here we reference the thesis text itself. Sellers has since published a revised version of the Figure 1, and the quotation in Sellers (2013). Young children becoming curriculum : Deleuze, Te Whāriki and curricular understandings. New York, NY: Routledge.

4. The authors thank reviewers for reminding us of the stickiness of the doctoral writing periods.