Using Foucault seems to be a worthy and, undoubtedly, noble goal to be
working towards. I find that with Foucault though, his actual "work" (I
dare not say theory) is not as clear as his essays and interviews. Being
still, at this point, not very well versed in the whole notion of a
"Foucauldian perspective", I will give my two cents worth and hope that I
am somewhat coherent.
Last Sept. or Oct., I think someone tossed out the idea of Foucauldian
approach as offering a set of "tools" which we can use to reveal all those
horrible "invisible strategies of normalization". My question still
remains: are people ready for this kind of "revelation". In the tradition
of docile bodies, i assume that docile minds must also be necessary in
order to have the kind of repressive hypothesis Foucault desires for us to
resist.
I am also having some difficulty figuring out this whole notion of
subject/object and how we manage to be be "both" and neither. Is it
Foucault's contention that we are made to believe we are "subjects" when
we are really "objects" of this network of power relations?
Sorry for ranting and rambling. I wish you all a happy and prosperous
new year and look forward to what some of you have to say to my
"dilemmas".
Regards,
Clara Ho
The University of Calgary