Re: Foucault and Bathouses & St. Foucault

atifeh,

i suppose you are talking about bourdieu's use of "habitus?"
without getting into whether or not we agree on what B means by the term,
i've always found the following passage on the soul, taken from
_Discipline and Punish_ (actually from p.177 of _The Foucault Reader_)
quite similar:

[the soul] exists; it has a reality; it is produced permanently
around, on, within the body by the functioning of a power that is
exercised on those punished -- and, in a more general way, on those one
supervises, trains, and corrects; over madmen, children at home and at
school, the colonized; over those who are stuck at a machine and
supervised for the rest of their lives. This is the historical reality of
this soul, which... is born... out of methods of punishment, supervision,
and constraint.


best,
dan





On Tue, 21 Apr 1998 aoliai@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

>
> Hello all,
>
> Was wondering if anyone has come across an idea similar to the "habitus" in
> F. writing?
>
> Appreciate the help.
> atifeh.
>
>
>
>
> At 09:19 20/04/1998 PDT, you wrote:
> >dear all,
> >
> >_Saint Foucault: Towards a Gay Hagiography_ is a brilliant book and
> >should be required reading for everyone here, particularly those easily
> >suceptible to homophobically informed pilosophies & biographies. it
> >would be nice to see this little imbroglio take a productive turn and
> >develop into a discussion of halperin's book.
> >
> >markisha
> >--who's off to minnesota to be an academic for a few days
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >>Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 19:24:35 -0700
> >>To: foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >>From: Dave Roberts <dave.roberts@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> >>Subject: Re: Foucault and Bathouses
> >>Reply-To: foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >>
> >>At 05:55 PM 4/17/98 -0500, m wrote:
> >>>>At 02:00 PM 4/17/98 -0500, Dave wrote:
> >>>>'We are inventing new pleasures beyond sex,'
> >>>>Foucault told an interviewer--in this particular case, sex
> >>>>as murder."
> >>
> >>>Dave, isn't it necessary to tell us exactly where *one* of those many
> >lines
> >>>quoted came from--I'll let you guess which one stands out a bit from
> >the
> >>>rest. And you might consider the tabloid quality of Miller's
> >biography, of
> >>>which Halperin wrote extensively in _Saint Foucault_. -m.
> >>
> >>Dueling biographies!
> >>
> >>The text that I quoted came from the book "The Idea of Decline
> >>in Western History." The quotes all came from the biography
> >>"The Passion of Michael Foucault." Apparently much of this
> >>book is based on interviews conducted by the author. I do
> >>not have the book and it is out of print...but I am going to
> >>try to find a copy. I was not aware that Miller's biography was
> >>controversial.
> >>
> >>You indicate that Miller's biography is of tabloid quality.
> >>You seem be saying that it is also false. Do you think that
> >>the quotes attributed to Foucault are lies? It is one thing
> >>to be a poor writer or to be mistaken and quite another
> >>to purposely write a false biography. What would Miller's
> >>motivation for this be?
> >>
> >>You say that you will let me guess which quote stands out from
> >>the rest. I think that you may have misread what I provided
> >>based on my poor formatting. It was attributed that Foucault
> >>said "We are inventing new pleasures beyond sex." That
> >>seems uncontroversial. The next part is "in this particular
> >>case, sex as murder." This was not meant to be attributed to
> >>Foucault or Miller. These were the words of Arthur Herman.
> >>
> >>In the past, I have found a few books which were purposely
> >>meant to mislead. This is always a disappointing but educating
> >>experience. So I intend to follow up on this. According
> >>to Amazon.com there are about 8 biographies of Foucault.
> >>This does not include "Saint Foucault: Towards a Gay
> >>Hagiography." Are there other biographies which you or
> >>Halperin find suspect?
> >>
> >>Thanks for the information.
> >>
> >>Dave
> >>
> >>"Give me knowledge, so I may have kindness for all."
> >> - Sioux proverb
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >______________________________________________________
> >Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
> >
>


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