In your message of 18:26 Jan 10 1997, you write:
> It seems ironic that Phil and I
> are from similar departments and based in the same city (we have
> never met) but that we appear to be the only people around talking
> about using Foucault. There must be a few others out
> there....mustn't there?
>
> All the best, Liz
Hi Liz,
An excellent line of discussion! Your enthusiasm is much welcomed.
Let me assure you that you are not the only one (or two) "using
Foucault," however. But you have struck on an interesting point, and one
that I think Foucault was (really) trying to get across to Jana Sawicki
et al.
The thoughts of Foucault have become very well...incorporated...into
many and diverse discourses. (I myself <plug plug> used Foucault in a
critique of discourses of so-called safer sex, for instance.)
Interestingly, being in a philosophy department, I hear many rail
against Foucault, yet I hear them in the next breath saying something
quite Foucauldian (or "Foucaultian," for you purists). I think *that*
would tickle Foucault in ways even his friends couldn't!
My point is that I think he would be encouraged - yet not, I would say,
surprised - by the capillarian ways
in which his thought has become distributed within many different
discourses, including history and philosophy. So...(my slight critique
of your thought)...I don't think it's exactly correct to think that no
one else is "using" Foucault, just because they don't say it explicitly.
And hey, he was the one who dreamed of his books "having no face," or
whatever splendid metaphor he chose to express the thought. I think he
would be encouraged by the scores of ways and contexts in which his work
is finding expression.
I would suggest that it might be interesting, in fact, to construct a
survey of the different contexts. Then again, if I'm correct about the
capillary-like infusion of his thoughts, such a list might not be
possible.
Anyway, a very cool point, Liz. Hope you continue to inform us of your
thoughts, discoveries, and insights.
Peace,
Blaine Rehkopf
Philosophy
York University
CANADA
--
> It seems ironic that Phil and I
> are from similar departments and based in the same city (we have
> never met) but that we appear to be the only people around talking
> about using Foucault. There must be a few others out
> there....mustn't there?
>
> All the best, Liz
Hi Liz,
An excellent line of discussion! Your enthusiasm is much welcomed.
Let me assure you that you are not the only one (or two) "using
Foucault," however. But you have struck on an interesting point, and one
that I think Foucault was (really) trying to get across to Jana Sawicki
et al.
The thoughts of Foucault have become very well...incorporated...into
many and diverse discourses. (I myself <plug plug> used Foucault in a
critique of discourses of so-called safer sex, for instance.)
Interestingly, being in a philosophy department, I hear many rail
against Foucault, yet I hear them in the next breath saying something
quite Foucauldian (or "Foucaultian," for you purists). I think *that*
would tickle Foucault in ways even his friends couldn't!
My point is that I think he would be encouraged - yet not, I would say,
surprised - by the capillarian ways
in which his thought has become distributed within many different
discourses, including history and philosophy. So...(my slight critique
of your thought)...I don't think it's exactly correct to think that no
one else is "using" Foucault, just because they don't say it explicitly.
And hey, he was the one who dreamed of his books "having no face," or
whatever splendid metaphor he chose to express the thought. I think he
would be encouraged by the scores of ways and contexts in which his work
is finding expression.
I would suggest that it might be interesting, in fact, to construct a
survey of the different contexts. Then again, if I'm correct about the
capillary-like infusion of his thoughts, such a list might not be
possible.
Anyway, a very cool point, Liz. Hope you continue to inform us of your
thoughts, discoveries, and insights.
Peace,
Blaine Rehkopf
Philosophy
York University
CANADA
--