Michel Foucault (1926 - 1984)
Introduction
Foucault continues to be one of the most influential thinkers in the humanities and social sciences today. He has emerged as a cultural icon and is considered to be “the quintessential embodiment of hyper intelligence and frustratingly difficult 'French thought'.”1 Foucault has inspired many schools of thought with his distinctive form of discourse analysis. His name is often referenced whenever the term discourse is mentioned.
Contribution
Discourses through time
Foucault stressed how various forms of knowledge change throughout history. In ‘Les Mots et les Choses’ (The Order of Things, 1966), Foucault claimed that different historical periods resulted in different truths and knowledges. These underlying conditions of truth constituted what was acceptable at the time; however, Foucault stressed how the conditions of discourse changed over time. He argued that one perspective of truth can vary between different historical periods.
What is an Author?
We consider language to be powerful. It imposes structure and captures meaning; it mediates life itself. Foucault suggests that language is unstable and open to interpretation. In his publication of What is an Author? (1969), he argues that the name of an author acts as a system of classifying and organising a body of work. He states that an author's name acts as a function of discourse which allows the work to be analysed and criticised - never approached from an unbiased perspective. Although numerous critics and theorists have contributed to examining the instability and open-textured nature of language, Foucault's contribution has been focused primarily on the author role.
Published Works
• Madness and Civilisation: A history of insanity in the age of Reason. trans. Richard Howard, London: Tavistock, 1967.
• The Order of Things: An archaeology of the human sciences. trans. Alan Sheridan, London: Tavistock, 1974.
• The Foucault Reader. Paul Rabinow, Harmondsworth: Peregrine, 1986; contains ‘What is an Author?’, ‘Nietzsche, genealogy, history’, ‘What is Enlightenment?’.
• Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics. Ed. Hubert L. Dreyfus and Paul Rainbow. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982.
1 O'Farrell, Clare. Michel Foucault. Sage Publications. London, 2005.