5/6/97 10:00pm: GMCMILLAN@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes...
>How about explaining for us beginners what Foucault means by
>the enunciative function (Ch. 2, THE ARCHEOLOGY OF KNOWLEDGE).
>
>He goes too fast and makes too many theoretical constructs
>without illustrating them in a concrete fashion. This is one of
>the chapters that lost me in that book.
>
Strange that you should ask, since I'm trying RIGHT NOW to write a =
bit about that chapter. Foucault's got a whole lot going on in this =
chapter (and book)--corrections to problems he sees in The Order of =
Things, on-going critique with historical methodology, etc.--but I =
think that the main point he wants to make in this chapter is to show =
the difference, the space between, the SUBJECT position of a certain =
statement and the AUTHOR of a group of statements or even a =
discursive formation (in the case of people like Marx, Freud, and =
Nietzsche).
He writes: "the subject of the statement should not be regarded as =
identical with the author of the formulation=8Beither in substance or =
in function. He is not in fact the cause, origin, or starting-point =
of the phenomenon of the written or spoken articulation of a =
sentence; nor is it that meaningful intention which, silently =
anticipating words, orders them like the visible body of its =
intuition." (p. 95.)
This can be compared with a bolder claim in "What is an Author?" =
(written at almost the exact same time): "In writing, the point is =
not to manifest or exalt the act of writing, nor is it to pin a =
subject within language; it is, rather, a question of creating a =
space into which the writing subject constantly disappears." (p. 102, =
in the Foucault Reader.)
The "enunciative function" is a term Foucault makes up (along with =
"statement," "discursive formation," "exteriority and rarity," etc.) =
to provide one who wants to study history with a set of tools that =
allow one to focus not on subjects or objects as such, but on the =
discursive practices that help to constitute those very subjects and =
objects in the first place (though not really in a sense of temporal =
priority). The enunciative function allows one to talk about the =
position of the author, without presupposing the expressive activity =
of the author in all its purity, or the integrity of the work or =
oeuvre, etc. In "What is an Author?" he refers on a more specific =
level to "author functions" which we use to sort out discourses, e.g. =
"THIS is Shakespeare, that's not."
I hope that's a start...
--Sam
>How about explaining for us beginners what Foucault means by
>the enunciative function (Ch. 2, THE ARCHEOLOGY OF KNOWLEDGE).
>
>He goes too fast and makes too many theoretical constructs
>without illustrating them in a concrete fashion. This is one of
>the chapters that lost me in that book.
>
Strange that you should ask, since I'm trying RIGHT NOW to write a =
bit about that chapter. Foucault's got a whole lot going on in this =
chapter (and book)--corrections to problems he sees in The Order of =
Things, on-going critique with historical methodology, etc.--but I =
think that the main point he wants to make in this chapter is to show =
the difference, the space between, the SUBJECT position of a certain =
statement and the AUTHOR of a group of statements or even a =
discursive formation (in the case of people like Marx, Freud, and =
Nietzsche).
He writes: "the subject of the statement should not be regarded as =
identical with the author of the formulation=8Beither in substance or =
in function. He is not in fact the cause, origin, or starting-point =
of the phenomenon of the written or spoken articulation of a =
sentence; nor is it that meaningful intention which, silently =
anticipating words, orders them like the visible body of its =
intuition." (p. 95.)
This can be compared with a bolder claim in "What is an Author?" =
(written at almost the exact same time): "In writing, the point is =
not to manifest or exalt the act of writing, nor is it to pin a =
subject within language; it is, rather, a question of creating a =
space into which the writing subject constantly disappears." (p. 102, =
in the Foucault Reader.)
The "enunciative function" is a term Foucault makes up (along with =
"statement," "discursive formation," "exteriority and rarity," etc.) =
to provide one who wants to study history with a set of tools that =
allow one to focus not on subjects or objects as such, but on the =
discursive practices that help to constitute those very subjects and =
objects in the first place (though not really in a sense of temporal =
priority). The enunciative function allows one to talk about the =
position of the author, without presupposing the expressive activity =
of the author in all its purity, or the integrity of the work or =
oeuvre, etc. In "What is an Author?" he refers on a more specific =
level to "author functions" which we use to sort out discourses, e.g. =
"THIS is Shakespeare, that's not."
I hope that's a start...
--Sam