Once one theorizes a volitional subject, over against a subject that
presents itself as an effect, or fixation, hasn?t one set up conditions of
discursive order that fail to capture some of the chaos? I think that
intrapersonal chaos, at times, allows one to exceed a given state of order,
to think new thoughts. John Dewey said as much when he wrote about the
uncertainty, and adventure, of reflective thinking. Perhaps it?s the
capacity to problemetize and strategize anew, that is closest to "agency" in
Fouault's writings.
(Consequently, "identity politics" can be evaluated along these lines.
Rather than offering a theory, or answer, to questions about agency, it is
more interesting to look at the concrete problems and stategies involved).
>From: thaddeus murawski <tmuraws1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Reply-To: foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>To: Foucault List <foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: F on discourse
>Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2000 10:37:56 -0500
>
>It seems to me that Foucault is very against identity politics; identity
>is one way power exercises control over individuals by pre-defining what
>they are and may become. to say that power is productive is merely to
>say that all is power, power is everywhere in discourse and it is
>through discourse that we form ourselves. Power being everywhere is a
>way to dismiss the notion that language offers access to freedom or
>truth, discourse a la Nietzsche is a form of power exercised on us and
>the meanings we give to our lives. to accept an identity is to submit to
>power, passive while it seems to me that Foucault is asking us to remain
>active, to exercise power through discourse as well as realizing that we
>can never totally escape it, and find the happy place of pure true
>discourse. A pure true discourse that will enable us to define ourselves
>free from 'power' (pre definitions). It seems to me that power is really
>just a term for pre definitions, for the context we are thrown into and
>can never transcend totally_we can only transgress the limits to our
>meaning.
>
>I don't think that Foucault ever gets rid of volition, agencyit is a
>misreading of his work to see that we are determined, rather we are
>caught in a dialectic or predefinitions (social meanings that we use to
>make our selves) and the indeterminacy of the language that makes
>useven in Discipline and Punish it is possible for the 'subjects' to
>transgress the meanings imposed on themthat is why the goal of the
>reformers is not successful, language never inscribes one meaning into
>us; and there is the subsequent need for the social body to act again on
>the body (lock it up) and to give up on controlling the prisoners (for
>the prison has its own rules) and it tries to act on the population in
>general through the figure of the delinquent (but the delinquent has
>several subversive meanings (hero for the underclass as an example).
>
>Volition in Foucault comes from the inadequacy of the tools used to make
>usdirect force on body or discourse.
>
______________________________________________________
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presents itself as an effect, or fixation, hasn?t one set up conditions of
discursive order that fail to capture some of the chaos? I think that
intrapersonal chaos, at times, allows one to exceed a given state of order,
to think new thoughts. John Dewey said as much when he wrote about the
uncertainty, and adventure, of reflective thinking. Perhaps it?s the
capacity to problemetize and strategize anew, that is closest to "agency" in
Fouault's writings.
(Consequently, "identity politics" can be evaluated along these lines.
Rather than offering a theory, or answer, to questions about agency, it is
more interesting to look at the concrete problems and stategies involved).
>From: thaddeus murawski <tmuraws1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Reply-To: foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>To: Foucault List <foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: F on discourse
>Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2000 10:37:56 -0500
>
>It seems to me that Foucault is very against identity politics; identity
>is one way power exercises control over individuals by pre-defining what
>they are and may become. to say that power is productive is merely to
>say that all is power, power is everywhere in discourse and it is
>through discourse that we form ourselves. Power being everywhere is a
>way to dismiss the notion that language offers access to freedom or
>truth, discourse a la Nietzsche is a form of power exercised on us and
>the meanings we give to our lives. to accept an identity is to submit to
>power, passive while it seems to me that Foucault is asking us to remain
>active, to exercise power through discourse as well as realizing that we
>can never totally escape it, and find the happy place of pure true
>discourse. A pure true discourse that will enable us to define ourselves
>free from 'power' (pre definitions). It seems to me that power is really
>just a term for pre definitions, for the context we are thrown into and
>can never transcend totally_we can only transgress the limits to our
>meaning.
>
>I don't think that Foucault ever gets rid of volition, agencyit is a
>misreading of his work to see that we are determined, rather we are
>caught in a dialectic or predefinitions (social meanings that we use to
>make our selves) and the indeterminacy of the language that makes
>useven in Discipline and Punish it is possible for the 'subjects' to
>transgress the meanings imposed on themthat is why the goal of the
>reformers is not successful, language never inscribes one meaning into
>us; and there is the subsequent need for the social body to act again on
>the body (lock it up) and to give up on controlling the prisoners (for
>the prison has its own rules) and it tries to act on the population in
>general through the figure of the delinquent (but the delinquent has
>several subversive meanings (hero for the underclass as an example).
>
>Volition in Foucault comes from the inadequacy of the tools used to make
>usdirect force on body or discourse.
>
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com