For Edwin McAllister, et al.--
I can't reply about _The Location of Culture_, but I can suggest
that this passage from Foucault (so precise and elegant in an e-mail
context!), should not be read as denying the existence of totalizing or
universal forms of knowledge/practice such as colonialism. Rather it
proposes that research might uncover more effective material by beginning
with the "local" knowledges which have been delegitimated by the grand
narratives. This isn't the same as saying that there aren't grand
narratives worth recognizing.
In a (post)colonial--and/or neocolonial--context, this might be
taken up as the difference between theorizing about global colonialism
yet again on the one hand and bringing to play the local language, the
supressed knowledges on the other hand. Foucault asked which effort
stimulates resistance more?
Many of you will notice that I've slipped into a vocabulary about
postmodernism, one that does not belong to Foucault. I'll try to take
this up in my next posting.
--Erick Heroux
------------------
I can't reply about _The Location of Culture_, but I can suggest
that this passage from Foucault (so precise and elegant in an e-mail
context!), should not be read as denying the existence of totalizing or
universal forms of knowledge/practice such as colonialism. Rather it
proposes that research might uncover more effective material by beginning
with the "local" knowledges which have been delegitimated by the grand
narratives. This isn't the same as saying that there aren't grand
narratives worth recognizing.
In a (post)colonial--and/or neocolonial--context, this might be
taken up as the difference between theorizing about global colonialism
yet again on the one hand and bringing to play the local language, the
supressed knowledges on the other hand. Foucault asked which effort
stimulates resistance more?
Many of you will notice that I've slipped into a vocabulary about
postmodernism, one that does not belong to Foucault. I'll try to take
this up in my next posting.
--Erick Heroux
------------------