Stuart,
thanks so much for taking the time to write and for giving me some great advice. Yes, you are right - I don't relish the thought of breaking up the work, but it's looking ominous that I'll have to go that route. Well done to you, though, for getting your ideas out there in book form, and the work you mentioned about Foucault and dentistry is very interesting. I'll have to take a look at that.
I just got back from a trip otherwise I would have responded sooner to your message, Stuart.
A big thanks again,
Scottie Hamilton
ps: By the way, where are you from? I'm an Ayshire man transplanted to Washington DC. Been Stateside for about 12 years now.
--- On Sat 02/15, Stuart Elden < stuart.elden@xxxxxxxxxxx > wrote:
From: Stuart Elden [mailto: stuart.elden@xxxxxxxxxxx]
To: foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sat, 15 Feb 2003 13:39:25 +0000
Subject: RE: Book proposal advice
Apologies if this appears twice - it was sent two days ago and never
appeared.
---
I hesitate to offer any suggestions, as my own experience is somewhat
limited. I was lucky with publishing my PhD thesis. I had a contract
before I submitted (with a publisher I was already working on another
project for), and ended up effectively submitting a first draft of a
book as a PhD.
I wonder if you might think about how to present the material somewhat
differently. I don't know how the material actually sits in the book -
what proportion for the different parts, whether they can be separated.
But there might be a method type book in there - using Foucault's work
in relation to the different lines of analysis you suggest. You mention
how this is applicable in different ways yourself. The work on '
grounded' methodology, qualitative data, etc. sounds quite challenging
to Foucault studies. Bridging the Anglo-American divide is also a
powerful issue. Potentially you could utilise some illustrations from
the Tourette work, and maybe other topics, but - and again this is
speculative - perhaps that more specific work might be best presented
to specialist academic journals? You don't mention if you have any of
this work in journals.
This would have the advantage of developing and enriching the Foucault
toolbox (as you say), and showing the way in which it can be applied. I
can imagine you won't like the idea of breaking apart your work in this
way. But I wonder if publishers see a book on a thinker and a topic and
think that purchasers would have to be interested in the thinker AND
the topic to buy it, rather than one or the other. There can be
exceptions - Sarah Nettleton's book on Foucault and dentistry is the
most obvious i can think of.
Good luck anyway
Stuart
Dr Stuart Elden
Lecturer in Political Geography
Department of Geography
University of Durham
South Road
Durham
DH1 3LE, UK
www.stuartelden.info
--
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