On Mon, 27 Jul 1998, Doug Henwood wrote:
> I was away for the weekend, and I'm just catching up - so I have no idea
> where this thread went, but I've been struck on this list by the
> predominant hagiographic tone, very much like that seen among orthodox
> Marxists - the same scriptural, catechistic tendencies. Is this true of any
> single-figure effort? It was true of the Wallace Stevens society when I
> used to follow it.
Well, I think the main function of this list tends to be exegesis--I think
that's what this kind of forum is best suited for, anyway, because
critical debates tend too easily to get sidetracked (though, for a
counterexample, see the Habermas list, especially the archives from last
winter). I think most people hang around here to try to get a better
understanding of Foucault, so of course there's going to be a fair bit of
chapter-and-verse quoting.
It's easy to criticize; it's more difficult to understand. I might seem
like a doctrinaire Foucauldian to you, here; to certain folks on the
Habermas list, I might seem like a doctrinaire Habermasian. I just want
to push both of them as far as they'll go, see how much I can get out of
them. And now I can see it's the same with you and Yoshie and Marx, and
you're not the doctrinaire Marxists it would be all too easy to peg you
as ;)--the type who would say nothing about Foucault except how he was
trumped by Marx, or how he suffers for a lack of Marx.
Matthew
----Matthew A. King------Department of Philosophy------McMaster University----
"The border is often narrow between a permanent temptation to commit
suicide and the birth of a certain form of political consciousness."
-----------------------------(Michel Foucault)--------------------------------