Customer Reviews

Overpowering Foucault - By: Kurt Messick, 30 Dec 2005
Sara Mills' text on Michel Foucault is part of a recent series put out by the Routledge Press, designed under the general editorial direction of Robert Eaglestone (Royal Holloway, University of London), to explore the most recent & exciting ideasin intellectual development during the past century or so. To this end, figures such as Martin Heidegger, Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jacques Derrida, Paul Ricouer & other influential thinkersin critical thought are highlightedin the series, planned to include more than 21 volumesin all.

Mills' text, following the pattern of the others, includes background information on Foucault & his significance, the key ideas & sources, & Foucault's continuing impact on other thinkers. As the series preface indicates, no critical thinker arisesin a vacuum, so the context, influences & broader cultural environment are all important as a part of the study, something with which Foucault would agree.

Why is Foucault includedin this series? Foucault is probably second only to Jacques Derridain influence on thinkersin the field of critical theory & cultural studies, & his impact has gone far beyond narrow intellectual confines to influence psychology, politics, literature, sociology, philosophy, linguistics, history & anthropology. Mills indicates that Foucault's primary focus is on issues of power, knowledge & discourse, with influencein the development of a lot of `posts' - post-modernism, post-colonialism, post-Marxism, post-structualism, etc.

Foucault often concentrated on the ignored, the forgotten or the overlookedin his studies. In looking at the written confession of a murderer from generations ago, or looking at prisonersin present society, Foucault looks not only at the way power operatesin practical settings, but what underpins the kind of power relationships. Heavily influenced by the events of 1968, with various forms of war & open rebellion going on across the globe (including Foucault's native French society), he had an inherent distrust for the kinds of power & society relationships considered standard. His work with prisoners & those classified as mentally ill challenged prevailing notions of the intentions of incarceration & even classification - perhaps we can see even more clearlyin today's mass-media-saturated society the inconsistencies, not only of application, but of intentionin the development of considering who is a criminal (and what their punishment & rehabilitation is likely to be) & who is considered mentally ill - the shift care to confinement & isolation (effective removal) from society gains new meaning from Foucault's analysis.

Foucault looks at power from a very basic position, not that of macroscopic geopolitical entities, but rather interpersonal relationships on a more local level, even exploring the way society uses body & sexuality as a root resourcein formulating power relationships. It is worth noting that this issue is over the idea of the `body', & not the `individual', which for Foucault are not strictly synonymous. Looking at the history of sexuality (the freer periods of sexual frankness vis-à-vis the more strict & reserved periods such as the Victorian age) leads to another set of power relations often internalised & often overlooked.

One of the useful features of the text is the side-bar boxes inserted at various points. For example, during the discussion on Foucault's development of Power & Institutions, there are brief discussions, set apart from the primary strand of the text, on the Marxist idea of ideology, developing further this idea should the reader not be familiar with it, or at least notin the way with which Foucault would be working with ideas derived from it. Each section on a key idea spans approximately twenty pages, with a brief summary concluding each, which gives a recap of the ideas (and provides a handy reference). Some of the concluding sectionsin this volume (unlike other volumesin the series) are not as handy as a recap, but do connect the primary ideas with the next chapter.

The concluding chapter, After Foucault, highlights some key areas of developmentin relation to other thinkers, as well as points of possible exploration for the reader. Foucault's thought vis-à-vis feminist thought is dramatic & interesting, given Foucault's generally androcentric (and often misogynistic) stancein writing - still the issues of power relations & society are crucial to feminist critique. His post-colonialist ideas, again springing from the reformulation of power relationshipsin society after a dominant, foreign power is displaced, influenced further thinkers such as Edward Said. Foucault has (perhaps unintentionally) become useful for the anti-psychiatric lobby, as Foucault sees much defined as madness to be social construct rather than actual ailment (Foucault saw talk-therapy as a kind of modernised `confessional').

There was only one point at which I had a serious disagreement with Millsin her analysis of Foucault. At one pointin discussing his tendency toward not developing fully thought-out theories, she speculates that his kind of approach could possibly be used `to justify fascism or to deny the existence of the Holocaust'. I would disagree with this assessment, given that this would notin fact discredit systems of power, but merely replace one with another. If fascism or Holocaust-deniers were not a power-in-potential, that might be true. But then, this is a point upon which much discussion could continue!

As do the other volumesin this series, Mills concludes with an annotated bibliography of works by Foucault (primarily those availablein authoritative English translation), works on Foucault, & even internet references.

While this series focuses intentionally upon critical literary theory & cultural studies,in fact this is only the starting point. For Foucault (as for othersin this series) the expanse is far too broad to be drawn into such narrow guidelines, & the important & impact of the ideas extends out into the whole range of intellectual development. As intellectual endeavours of every sort depend upon language, understanding, & interpretation, the thorough comprehension of how & why we know what we know is crucial.