becoming poly

Abstract

Nonmonogamous, including polyamorous, desire is frequently understood as being a cause or effect of lack. The article situates this logic of lack within mono-normativity, the socially privileged status of sexually and affectively exclusive couple relationships. Drawing on narrative interviews, it is shown how the discourse of lack also extends into polyamorous relationships. Subsequently, based on the interview data as well as on the works of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, the mono-normative economy of lack is contrasted with a reading of polyamorous (and other) relationships as agencement, as assemblages of desire. From this perspective, (poly‑)desire and affects can be interpreted as production processes of the social that do not lack anything. In addition, the interview partners’ poly-relationships do not present themselves as static, identity-defining structures but as becomings. In an outlook, some further research issues are sketched which might be taken up by a more detailed study on polyamory as agencement.