... Philosopher Michel Foucault
Update: Scott McLemee correctly points out that we incorrectly labeled Michel Foucault a deconstructionist. Foucault has been called a postmodernist and a post-structuralist, but he did not agree. Perhaps I should have called him a fellow Libran, since his birthday was Oct. 15, the day after mine. At any rate, I don't think he would object to being called a philosopher.
Foucault was not a deconstructionist.
ReplyDeleteHe was a historical revisionist and some of his best friends were deconstructionists. He was very fascinated with power and prisons and S & M bars in San Francisco. Also had some fun with peyote. But he at least wrote some great stuff -- twas readable, unlike, say, Fredric Jameson.
ReplyDeleteWhat a striking, and fortunate, resemblance!
ReplyDelete"Poststructuralist" does not mean "postmodernist" which does not, in turn, mean "deconstructionist." Foucault made quite explicit that his work was at odds with that of Derrida.
ReplyDeleteThere is a very sharp polemic against deconstruction by Foucault from the early 1970s that's familiar to people who've read his work. People who haven't, alas, tend to be fascinated by gossip about his personal life, as if that were somehow more meaningful than the books he wrote.
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Hi,
ReplyDeleteThis is inspiring; I am very pleased by this post. Nice work, thanks for such information.