1 THE TEMPORALIZATION OF DIFFERENCE Continental Philosophy Review 34: 1–20, 2001. © 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. The temporalization of difference: Reflections on Deleuze’s interpretation of Bergson GIOVANNA BORRADOR1 Department of Philosophy, Vassar College, 124 Raymond Avenue, Poughkeepsie, NY 12604 USA Abstract. This paper provides an in-depth analysis of Deleuze’s interpretation of Bergson, based on his largely ignored 1956 essay, “Bergson’s Conception of Difference.” In this es- say, Deleuze first attacks the Hegelian tradition for misunderstanding the notion of differ- ence by reducing it to negation and then uses Bergson’s concept of duration – a flow of purely qualitative mental states – to formulate a notion of difference utterly “internal” to itself, that is, irreducible to negation. The paper argues that this temporalization of difference represents a permanent feature of Deleuze’s philosophy-one particularly visible in his highly influential book on Nietzsche – and concludes that Deleuze’s Nietzsche therefore appears molded by a Bergsonian imprint. Introduction Compared with the universally acknowledged ancestors of poststructuralism – Freud, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Saussure – Henri Bergson’s influence has been mostly ignored. Whenever his presence is mentioned, it has been accounted for in two ways: either as an isolated chapter within Gilles Deleuze’s series of monographs on individual Western thinkers; 1 or as an outgrowth of Deleuze’s study on Nietzsche. Those who take the latter view interpret Bergsonism, his study on Bergson, to be largely influenced by Nietzsche. 2 In contrast to these views I claim that Bergson has had a significant effect on poststructuralism in general, an effect mediated by the constitutive role played by Deleuze’s reading of Nietzsche, which, in turn, is shaped by a profoundly Bergsonian inspiration. The hinge of my argument will be one of Deleuze’s least known essays, entitled “Bergson’s Conception of Difference,” 3 which attests to Deleuze’s interpretation of Bergson well before his encounter with Nietzsche. 4 A care- ful examination of this essay will allow me to pick out what Deleuze draws from Bergson and imports into Nietzsche: I have called it the temporalization of difference. If my argument holds, not only will the standard interpretation of Deleuze’s Nietzsche have to be revised 5 but it would provide an explana-