It says a little more than that, and implies more than it says. He says it
is impossible and
undesirable for an author to try to control the reception and effects of a
book.
The unsaid but obvious reason for saying this, for his readers then, was
that things had happened between 1961 and 1972, such as antipsychiatry and May
68, and Histoire de la Folie had become a reference used on both sides of
various battles. I think one could infer that he thought the earlier presentation
had been designed for a different context and had found that some its
explanation of his project had proved liable to misinterpretation, notably by
Derrida.
In a message dated 08/09/04 04:06:04 GMT Daylight Time,
ew407@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
In his 1972 short preface, Foucault only says that the editor asked him to
write a new preface, but he declined because the words of his book should
stand for themselves.
He did not give a reason for withdrawing the previous preface.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin Turner" <k.turner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Foucault List" <foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2004 2:35 PM
Subject: preface to HF
> Just got my hands on a copy of the English translation to the first
> preface to "Historie de la folie."
> It makes for very interesting reading; specifically with regard to the
> directions foucault's writing took.
>
> My questions is: does anybody know why foucault withdrew it?
> I cannot see any obvious problem with it, and was curious as to why it was
> taken out of the 1972 edition.
>
> regards - k
>
> --
> Kevin Turner
> Dept. of Sociology
> Cartmel College
> Lancaster University
> Lancaster
> LA1 4YL
>
> (01524) 594508
>
Colin Gordon
Director, NHSIA Disease Management Systems Programme
Health Informatics Manager, Royal Brompton Hospital
Chair, British Medical informatics Society
http://www.bmis.org
07881 625146
colinngordon@xxxxxxx
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