Date: Thu, 01 Feb 2001 04:12:59 -0600 From: Loren Dent <lorendent-AT-mail.utexas.edu> Subject: What is an author? the questions raised about the relationship between Foucault the 'person' and Foucault the 'theorist' are very hard to answer by the token of the man's own comments on the subject. On one hand, he insists there is only an "tenuous analytical link" between a theorists life and the work. On the other hand there is both his idea of a specific, engaged intellectual as well as the notion of the "experience book"-- that his texts were the production of particular experiences he had rather than philisophical pondering. This makes sense, of course. He wrote Madness and Civilization after turning from an early interest in psychology and actually _experiencing_ asylums and hospitals. Discipline and PUnish is connected to his work with the GIP. History of Sexuality probably had to do with his own struggles with his own sexuality. The Dider Eribon biography (very good) *suggests* that _Birth of the Clinic_ might have arisen because Foucault's father was a doctor, and there was a life-long tension between the two....but whatever... The point is that while this link is only "tenuous", its certainly there. And foucault's own thoughts on that connection change throughout his intellectual life. On a side note. One of my favorite interviews is "critical history, intellectual history" AKA "structuralism and poststructuralism"...this interview makes me wonder why the word "poststructuralism" is still a free-floating signifer in the academic community despite foucault's proclamation that he doesn't know what concerns such "Poststructuralists"... its all quite amusing.. loren utexas At 10:19 PM 1/31/01 -0700, you wrote: >> > The transendental principle is a priori. >> Does anyone on this list actually read Foucault? > >Um...I'm talking about Kant just then, dear. Want to elaborate? > >_________________________________________________________________ >Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com
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