From: "Stuart Elden" <stuart.elden-AT-clara.co.uk>
Subject: RE: Re: A twist to dossier and gaze
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 19:30:32 +0100


Lionel, and others

I too am interested and curious as to what you mean by 'dossier'. Which
French word are you referring to? Can you provide some citations? The ones
that immediately spring to mind are in Herculine Barbin and I, Pierre
Riviere - dossier as 'le dossier'.

I would suggest thinking carefully about what Foucault says about the
archive, and about the gaze. This last - le regard - should of course be
thought more generally than the Panopticon in Discipline and Punish. There
is a difference - and it's frequently missed - between panopticism and the
Panopticon. Equally there is the discussion of the gaze in Birth of the
Clinic, and in Histoire de la folie (not sure how much is retained in
Madness and Civilisation).

Here's a passage from the course summary from 1972-73 - The Punitive Society
(Resume des cours, p 49):-

A new optics, first: an organ of surveillance generalised and constant; all
must be observed, seen, transmitted: organisation of a police; institution
of a system of archives (with individual files), establishment of a
panopticism.

(my translation - the one in Essential Works Vol I suggests 'police force'
instead of police, which is extremely misleading! Archive is translated as
'record', and it completely omits a paragraph from lower down the page...)

This would seem to link the issues you are concerned with.

>The way I interpret Foucault and this interview, is that the CEO was
>imposing his MANAGERIAL GAZE on me and making use of this report as a
>DOSSIER.

I think I'd need to hear more from you about what you think Foucault means
by 'dossier' to comment on this interpretation.

Best wishes

Stuart