Dear Ali,
I couldn't agree with you more about the centrality of capitalism to
Foucault's conception of power. That gives a nice gloss on the
transition from the model of sovereignty to a productive deployment of
power.
I'm not so sure he completely disposes of psychoanalytic conceptions of
repression or the Law as found in people like Lacan, Zizek, or Copjec.
But he is absolutely devestating in his critique of the kind of naive
Marxo-Freudianism popular in the late sixties and mid seventies. Of
course, I also think his opposition to psychoanalysis is sometimes
overstated.
Allen
Paul Allen Miller
Director of Comparative Literature
Associate Professor of Classics
Department of French and Classics
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
803-777-0473
pamiller@xxxxxx
>>> ali_m_rizvi@xxxxxxxxxxx 05/06/02 18:06 PM >>>
Allen
I found your comments illuminating.
However on the question of overstating repressive hypothesis, I think
it seems overstated because it is not understood in the context in
which Foucault formulated it. Although I think Foucault never clearly
conceptualised this context adequately, it would be clear to any
attentive
reader
of his "Will to Knowledge", (which should be read keeping Discipline and
Punish in mind), that this context is Foucault's conception of modern
capitalism or his conception of modern societies as capitalist
societies.
Foucault thought that it was wrong to imagine working of power in
general
in terms of repression in the context of modern societies because of
the dual capitalist imperative of maximising utility and doxiility at
the same time (DP).
I think people miss something worthwhile because of our current fear and
repulsion of 'grand themes' like capitalism etc. which is in my view
is ultimately our fear of turh as Hegel had seen long before.
Best Regards
ali
Whether he is ultimatley right about the repressive hypothesis is a
separate question. I think he may overstate things.
Lionel
Allen replied to my comment:
The quotation on p.6 is part of FOucault's outline of the repressive
hypothesis, which he later goes on to refute. Sex is not repressed, it
is invented in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Paul Allen Miller
Director of Comparative Literature
Associate Professor of Classics
Department of French and Classics
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
803-777-0473
pamiller@xxxxxx
>>> lboxer@xxxxxxxxxxx 05/05/02 22:11 PM >>>
Derive something from HOS p.6 and p.99.
'if sex is so rigorously repressed, this is because it is imcompatible
with
a general and intensive work imperative.' p. 6
'We must seek rather the pattern of the modifications which the
relationships of force imply by the very nature of their process.' p. 99
What is it that priests do when they work? What social dynamics are
created? What are the emotional reactions to the social dynamics? What
do
those dynamics lead to?
_________________________________________________________________
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I couldn't agree with you more about the centrality of capitalism to
Foucault's conception of power. That gives a nice gloss on the
transition from the model of sovereignty to a productive deployment of
power.
I'm not so sure he completely disposes of psychoanalytic conceptions of
repression or the Law as found in people like Lacan, Zizek, or Copjec.
But he is absolutely devestating in his critique of the kind of naive
Marxo-Freudianism popular in the late sixties and mid seventies. Of
course, I also think his opposition to psychoanalysis is sometimes
overstated.
Allen
Paul Allen Miller
Director of Comparative Literature
Associate Professor of Classics
Department of French and Classics
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
803-777-0473
pamiller@xxxxxx
>>> ali_m_rizvi@xxxxxxxxxxx 05/06/02 18:06 PM >>>
Allen
I found your comments illuminating.
However on the question of overstating repressive hypothesis, I think
it seems overstated because it is not understood in the context in
which Foucault formulated it. Although I think Foucault never clearly
conceptualised this context adequately, it would be clear to any
attentive
reader
of his "Will to Knowledge", (which should be read keeping Discipline and
Punish in mind), that this context is Foucault's conception of modern
capitalism or his conception of modern societies as capitalist
societies.
Foucault thought that it was wrong to imagine working of power in
general
in terms of repression in the context of modern societies because of
the dual capitalist imperative of maximising utility and doxiility at
the same time (DP).
I think people miss something worthwhile because of our current fear and
repulsion of 'grand themes' like capitalism etc. which is in my view
is ultimately our fear of turh as Hegel had seen long before.
Best Regards
ali
Whether he is ultimatley right about the repressive hypothesis is a
separate question. I think he may overstate things.
Lionel
Allen replied to my comment:
The quotation on p.6 is part of FOucault's outline of the repressive
hypothesis, which he later goes on to refute. Sex is not repressed, it
is invented in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Paul Allen Miller
Director of Comparative Literature
Associate Professor of Classics
Department of French and Classics
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
803-777-0473
pamiller@xxxxxx
>>> lboxer@xxxxxxxxxxx 05/05/02 22:11 PM >>>
Derive something from HOS p.6 and p.99.
'if sex is so rigorously repressed, this is because it is imcompatible
with
a general and intensive work imperative.' p. 6
'We must seek rather the pattern of the modifications which the
relationships of force imply by the very nature of their process.' p. 99
What is it that priests do when they work? What social dynamics are
created? What are the emotional reactions to the social dynamics? What
do
those dynamics lead to?
_________________________________________________________________
Join the worlds largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail.
http://www.hotmail.com
_________________________________________________________________
Join the worlds largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail.
http://www.hotmail.com