Date: Thu, 05 Jul 2001 14:46:38 -0500
From: Walt <stein-AT-io.uwinnipeg.ca>
Subject: Re: if -- And



I am surprised that this discussion, valuable as it is, tends to  conflates 
two issues: textuality, on the one hand, and traditional concerns with 
"explanation" on the other.

Of course, Foucault's homosexuality, or ethnicity, or height, or taste in 
food in no way corrupt, enhance, or affect, his texts.  As he has pointed 
out, texts like his were normally anonymous during the middle ages, in much 
the same way that "scientific" texts are essentially anonymous 
today.  Texts named Foucault clearly stand on their own and must be treated 
independently of authorship.

It would seem to me, however, that people interested in Foucault, perhaps 
the foremost analyst of transgression and its sources, limits, etc. would 
be very curious to attempt to explore the origins of these transgressive 
texts. How, in short, did it come about that Foucault prepared texts with 
these subjects, perspectives, and interests?  Why Foucault, that is, and 
not someone else?

Would it be stretching plausibility to suggest that a man who found himself 
converted from a "pervert" to an "orientation" within the very discourse of 
psychology in which he began his studies might have found interest (not to 
mention a certain Nietzschean amusement) in that  turn of events?  If so, 
Foucault's homosexualty may certainly help to explain the being of his 
texts, while in no way affecting their independence of him.

Yours,
Walt

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