MICHEL FOUCAULT, info.

Hi Mehmet,

I don't think Foucault ever commented on Said's Orientalism in print (well 
not in any of the English translations of F's work I have at hand). The men 
did meet, however, around 1979 (See interviews with Edward Said. Ed. 
Amritjit Singh and Bruce G. Johnson 2004).

I've never really been a fan of Said's reading of Foucault. Some of his 
comments in various essays and interviews, especially concerning Foucualt's 
'sterile' conception of power or his lack of political activism just don't 
hold up in my opinion. In fact I wrote my MA dissertation on how 
un-Foucauldian (if we there is such a thing) I found Orientalism.

John



> From: "Mehmet Kentel" <mehmet.kentel@xxxxxxxxx>
> Reply-To: Mailing-list <foucault-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: foucault-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [Foucault-L] said's orientalism, foucault's comments?
> Date: Thu, 8 Nov 2007 01:39:39 +0200
>
> Hi all,
>
> Working on Edward Said's Orientalism for a while, I am wondering if
> Foucault had said anything about Said's work. The book, after all, was
> published in 1978 and it got immediate response both from academic
> circles and popular media. Being a work deeply based on Foucault's
> analysis of discourse, I guess Orientalism must have had taken
> attention of Foucault too in a six-years time. A brief search, though,
> didn't come up with anything. Do you know any article or interview
> where Foucault talks about Said?
>
> Regards,
>
> Mehmet Kentel
>
> Boðaziçi University
> Department of Political Science & International Relations
> Department of History
> Undergrad.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Foucault-L mailing list

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