Post-Structuralism: An Indian Preview - Igcollege.org

Proceedings of National Seminar on Postmodern Literary Theory and Literature , Jan. 27-28, 2012, Nanded
A Note on Foucault’s Notion of Discourse
Dr. R.T. Bedre Dept. of English SSJES’ ACS
College, Gangakhed. Dist. Parbhani. (M.S.)
Mr.K.U. Gangarde Researcher and Project
Fellow Department of English at SSJES’ ACS
College, Gangakhed. Dist. Parbhani. (M.S.)
Michel Foucault (1926 –1984) was a
French philosopher, social theorist and historian
of ideas. He was a professor of ‘History of
Systems of Thought’ at the College de France,
and lectured at the University at Buffalo and the
University of California, Berkeley. Foucault is
best known for his critical studies on social
institutions, most notably psychiatry, medicine,
the human sciences and the prison system, as
well as for his work on the history of human
sexuality. His writings on power, knowledge,
and discourse have been widely influential in
academic circles. He was listed as the most cited
scholar in the humanities in 2007 by the ISI Web
of Science (Wikipedia- Foucault). Power,
knowledge, Archaeology, genealogy, episteme,
dispositif, biopower, governmentality,
disciplinary institution, and panopticism are his
other notable ideas which earned him fame all
over the world. His notable works are: Madness
and Civilization (1961), The Birth of the Clinic:
An Archaeology of Medical Perception (1963),
Death and the Labyrinth: The World of
Raymond Roussel (1963), Order of Things: An
Archaeology of the Human Sciences (1966), The
Archaeology of Knowledge (1969), Discipline
and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1977) and
The History of Sexuality (1976). Foucault's
works concentrate upon elucidating the
particular power relations and discourses
involved in different knowledge by way of an
analysis of their respective histories. The present
paper focuses on the Foucauldian notion of
discourse.
The notion of ‘discourse’ plays
important role in contemporary literary theory. It
is central in all the books written by Foucault.
Although it is originated in the disciplines of
Linguistics and Semiotics, it has been extended
up to many branches of human sciences. It has
been used in the academic disciplines such as
literature, history, sociology, psychology,
political science, culture, gender and
postcolonial studies to define, explain and
understand the problems in their respective
fields of study.
Discourse, according to Foucault, is
related to power as it operates by rules of
exclusion. Discourse therefore is controlled by
objects, what can be spoken of; ritual, where and
how one may speak; and the privileged, who
may speak (Wikipedia-discourse). Discourse
constitutes not only the world that we live in, but
also all forms of knowledge and truth. Discourse
generates truth or what some have called trutheffects.
Certain discourses in certain contexts
have the power to convince people to accept
statements as true. Discourse thus is the means
of power and it constitutes knowledge which is
accepted in the society. Therefore, Foucault says
in the first volume of his book ‘History of
Sexuality’ that it is in discourse that power and
knowledge are joined together.
Discourse has become a central term for
the poststructural critics who oppose the
deconstructive method of analyzing the text. M.
H. Abrams explains the concept of discourse as
follows:
In poststructural criticism, discourse …
supplementing (and in some cases
displacing) “text’’ as the name of the
verbal material which is primarily
concern of literary criticism. In poststructural
usage, however, the term is
not confined to conversational passages
but, like “writing,” designates all verbal
constructions and implies the
superficiality of the boundaries between
literary and non literary modes of
signification. Most conspicuously,
99 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1