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Becoming-imperceptible

Philosophy
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Becoming-imperceptible describes a process of dissolving identity into anonymity or indistinction. It emphasises transformation beyond recognisable form.

Detailed Definition
In Deleuzian philosophy, becoming-imperceptible is the ultimate stage of transformation, where individuality dissolves into flows and processes. In poetry, it appears in fluid imagery, shifting identities, and dissolution of boundaries between self and world. Poets use this concept to explore anonymity, transcendence, and the limits of perception.
Example
Example in poetry:
Deleuze and Guattari's concept of "becoming-imperceptible" — the dissolution of the individuated self into the flows and multiplicities of the world — has inspired experimental poets like Lisa Robertson and Lyn Hejinian, whose work enacts the undoing of the lyric "I" into collective, impersonal processes; In Keats's notion of the "chameleon poet," who has no identity but takes on the identities of everything it encounters, there is a proto-Deleuzian becoming-imperceptible — the poetic self as constitutively unstable, flowing into its objects; Zen-influenced poetry (Snyder, Kerouac's spontaneous prose-poetry) pursues becoming-imperceptible as a spiritual and philosophical ideal — the dissolution of ego-boundaries into the present moment of experience; A poet meditating on aging or serious illness might find in becoming-imperceptible not loss but liberation — the gradual release of the insistent ego-self into the larger flows of life and death; Celan's late poetry, in its radical hermeticism and linguistic dissolution, can be read as an enactment of becoming-imperceptible — the poem increasingly dissolving the subject into fractured, anonymous linguistic fragments; Stevens's late poem "The Snow Man" enacts becoming-imperceptible — the speaker who becomes a "mind of winter," perceiving "nothing that is not there and the nothing that is there" — the individual perspective merging with impersonal, inhuman cold
Additional Notes
"Becoming-imperceptible" is one of the most demanding concepts in Deleuze and Guattari's "A Thousand Plateaus." It is the final stage of a series of "becomings" (becoming-woman, becoming-animal, becoming-molecular) — the dissolution of the individuated subject into the impersonal flows and multiplicities of the world. It is not annihilation but a transformation beyond the constraints of personal identity and recognizable selfhood. Zen Buddhist concepts of no-self (anatta) and the dissolution of ego provide a philosophical parallel, as does Keats's notion of the "chameleon poet" who has no fixed identity. For poets, becoming-imperceptible poses a radical challenge to the lyric tradition, which is grounded in a speaking subject — it asks what a poetry without a stable "I" might be, and what forms of perception become available when personal identity loosens. Related terms: becoming, deterritorialization, no-self, the impersonal, rhizome, the Body without Organs.
Also Known As
molecular flight line of escape dissolution into flux
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