Richard,
I think it is wonderful that so many people seem to be interested in the same elements of Foucault. I've often thought of Foucault as a thinker that inspires change rather than surrender. You are right that he refused the role of the academic as leader. I can't remember which essay it is in but I remember Foucault speaking about "specific intellectuals" rather than intellectuals that attempt to speak for a wide group of people like the proletariat.
It is interesting that you mention Negri and Hardt. I spent quite a bit of time readin Empire and Multitude last fall, I particularly enjoy Multitude. I think that Foucault's call for a "specific intellectual" relates to immaterial labor as described by Hardt and Negri. I think that the "specific intellectuals" place in society (for example, Oppenheimer and nuclear weapons) gives them privledged information about a particular issue.
I would like to hear more about Tronti, I just found a copy of "The Strategy of the Refusal." Do you have any other suggestions for me?
Thanks!
Sam
-----Original Message-----
From: "Richard Bailey" <rb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Mailing-list" <foucault-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 09 Aug 2005 16:41:37 +1000
Subject: Re: [Foucault-L] Introduction-Sam Taylor
Hi Sam and all,
I am doing similar research. I am looking at resistance in Foucault. In
particular I am interested in the passage in History of Sexuality volume
one where Foucault states there is no "one soul of revolt". Later in the
same para he admits that "great ruptures" do occur.
I have always read Foucault as retaining the possibility of revolution
but choosing not to write about it directly because of his refusal of
the role of the academic as leader. I feel that most of the writers that
have criticised Foucault on the question of resistance miss this point.
I do sense a missing link though between resistance as part of the
relation of forces that constitute power and the "great ruptures". I do
not find the ethical turn in Foucault's later works very convincing, to
me it contradicts the materiality of power he analysed so brilliantly in
Discipline and Punish etc.
I wonder what others here think of the work of Hardt and Negri and Paolo
Virno? They argue that Foucault did not sufficiently comprehend the link
between biopolitics and the development of labour as commodity. Their
work is derived from Italian operaismo that began with Tronti and
others. Deleuze makes reference to Tronti in his book on Foucault and
speculates that Tronti may have developed similar insights to Foucault
in the 60s. I see their work as an essential addition to Foucault (or
perhaps as a Foucauldianised Marxism) which returns retains the
materiality of power.
Richard
SAM G TAYLOR wrote:
>Hello!
>
>I'm a senior at Utah Valley State College finishing my last semester. I became interested in Foucault last year in a class dedicated to his works. I'm currently writing a senior thesis that examines Foucault's enigma of revolution and its relation to subjectivity and freedom. Ultimately, I compare these ideas with Kant's prohibition against revolution, his ideas concerning subjectivity and freedom. I'm currently working on their difference conceptions of the State and how the individual is constituted in relation to the State.
>
>I joined this list to look at Foucault in fresh and intersting ways.
>
>Thanks, I hope to read many interesting conversations.
>
>Sam Taylor
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Foucault-L mailing list
>
>
>
_______________________________________________
Foucault-L mailing list
I think it is wonderful that so many people seem to be interested in the same elements of Foucault. I've often thought of Foucault as a thinker that inspires change rather than surrender. You are right that he refused the role of the academic as leader. I can't remember which essay it is in but I remember Foucault speaking about "specific intellectuals" rather than intellectuals that attempt to speak for a wide group of people like the proletariat.
It is interesting that you mention Negri and Hardt. I spent quite a bit of time readin Empire and Multitude last fall, I particularly enjoy Multitude. I think that Foucault's call for a "specific intellectual" relates to immaterial labor as described by Hardt and Negri. I think that the "specific intellectuals" place in society (for example, Oppenheimer and nuclear weapons) gives them privledged information about a particular issue.
I would like to hear more about Tronti, I just found a copy of "The Strategy of the Refusal." Do you have any other suggestions for me?
Thanks!
Sam
-----Original Message-----
From: "Richard Bailey" <rb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Mailing-list" <foucault-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 09 Aug 2005 16:41:37 +1000
Subject: Re: [Foucault-L] Introduction-Sam Taylor
Hi Sam and all,
I am doing similar research. I am looking at resistance in Foucault. In
particular I am interested in the passage in History of Sexuality volume
one where Foucault states there is no "one soul of revolt". Later in the
same para he admits that "great ruptures" do occur.
I have always read Foucault as retaining the possibility of revolution
but choosing not to write about it directly because of his refusal of
the role of the academic as leader. I feel that most of the writers that
have criticised Foucault on the question of resistance miss this point.
I do sense a missing link though between resistance as part of the
relation of forces that constitute power and the "great ruptures". I do
not find the ethical turn in Foucault's later works very convincing, to
me it contradicts the materiality of power he analysed so brilliantly in
Discipline and Punish etc.
I wonder what others here think of the work of Hardt and Negri and Paolo
Virno? They argue that Foucault did not sufficiently comprehend the link
between biopolitics and the development of labour as commodity. Their
work is derived from Italian operaismo that began with Tronti and
others. Deleuze makes reference to Tronti in his book on Foucault and
speculates that Tronti may have developed similar insights to Foucault
in the 60s. I see their work as an essential addition to Foucault (or
perhaps as a Foucauldianised Marxism) which returns retains the
materiality of power.
Richard
SAM G TAYLOR wrote:
>Hello!
>
>I'm a senior at Utah Valley State College finishing my last semester. I became interested in Foucault last year in a class dedicated to his works. I'm currently writing a senior thesis that examines Foucault's enigma of revolution and its relation to subjectivity and freedom. Ultimately, I compare these ideas with Kant's prohibition against revolution, his ideas concerning subjectivity and freedom. I'm currently working on their difference conceptions of the State and how the individual is constituted in relation to the State.
>
>I joined this list to look at Foucault in fresh and intersting ways.
>
>Thanks, I hope to read many interesting conversations.
>
>Sam Taylor
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Foucault-L mailing list
>
>
>
_______________________________________________
Foucault-L mailing list