Date: Sun, 02 Dec 2001 19:39:14 +0200 (MET)
From: "Yves WINTER" <yves.winter-AT-wanadoo.fr>
Subject: trancher



1. trancher also means _to decide_ (in a declarative and performative way). eg. a king or a judge decides. 

2. moreover it means _to contrast_


>Messsage du 02/12/2001 13:02
>De :  <foucault-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>
>A :  <foucault-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>
>Copie à : 
>Objet : RE: foucault-digest V2 #530  
>
> >The quote is from
> >Foucault, Michel. (1984). Nietzsche, genealogy and history. In Paul
> >Rabinow (Ed.), the Foucault Reader. (pp. 76-100). New York: Pantheon
> >Books and specifically, page 88, where F is talking about effective
> >history. Perhaps Stuart Elden can provide a French original? Thanks
> >Stuart
> 
> C'est que le savoir n'est pas fait pour comprendre, il est fait pour
> trancher.
> 
> Dits et ecrits, Vol II, p. 148
> 
> So the word in question is trancher, not couper. Trancher could mean cut in
> a violent sense - slitting a throat, cutting off a head [but in Foucault's
> phrase we need to cut - couper - the king's head off]. But trancher also has
> a sense of bringing to an end, concluding; tranche is a slice.
> 
> But if read in the context of the discussion, it seems obvious that it is
> related to the discussion of discontinuity and the breaking up of seemingly
> seamless passages of history, the refusal of a solid centre around which
> history resolves.
> 
> Hope that's useful in contextualising the remark.
> 
> Stuart
> 
>