I think Stephen D'Arcy's last post really highlighted the issues for me
around the charge of normativity in Foucault. I don't want to add
anything of my own to those comments, but it did remind me of an extract
>from the interview with F., Body/Power ("Power/Knowledge") which
illustrates Setphen's points.
"The body thus became the issue of a conflict between parents and
children, the child and the instances of control. The revolt of the
sexual body is the reverse effect of this encroachment. What is the
response on the side of power? An economic (and perhaps also
ideological) exploitation of eroticisation, from sun-tan products to
pornographic films. Responding precisely to the revolt of the body, we
find a new mode of investment which presents itself no longer in the
form of control by repression but that of control by stimulation. 'Get
undressed - but be slim, good-looking, tanned!' For each move by one
adversary, there is an answering one by the other. But this isn't a
'recuperation' in the Leftists' sense. One has to recognise the
indefiniteness of the struggle - though this is not to say it won't some
day have and end..." (p. 57)
Best wishes
Murray
=================================
Murray K. Simpson,
Department of Social Work,
Frankland Building,
The University of Dundee,
Dundee DD1 4HN,
United Kingdom.
http://www.dundee.ac.uk/SocialWork/mainpage.htm
tel. 01382 344948
fax. 01382 221512
e.mail m.k.simpson@xxxxxxxxxxxx
around the charge of normativity in Foucault. I don't want to add
anything of my own to those comments, but it did remind me of an extract
>from the interview with F., Body/Power ("Power/Knowledge") which
illustrates Setphen's points.
"The body thus became the issue of a conflict between parents and
children, the child and the instances of control. The revolt of the
sexual body is the reverse effect of this encroachment. What is the
response on the side of power? An economic (and perhaps also
ideological) exploitation of eroticisation, from sun-tan products to
pornographic films. Responding precisely to the revolt of the body, we
find a new mode of investment which presents itself no longer in the
form of control by repression but that of control by stimulation. 'Get
undressed - but be slim, good-looking, tanned!' For each move by one
adversary, there is an answering one by the other. But this isn't a
'recuperation' in the Leftists' sense. One has to recognise the
indefiniteness of the struggle - though this is not to say it won't some
day have and end..." (p. 57)
Best wishes
Murray
=================================
Murray K. Simpson,
Department of Social Work,
Frankland Building,
The University of Dundee,
Dundee DD1 4HN,
United Kingdom.
http://www.dundee.ac.uk/SocialWork/mainpage.htm
tel. 01382 344948
fax. 01382 221512
e.mail m.k.simpson@xxxxxxxxxxxx