Genealogy

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6 pages, 184 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Introduction: Beyond Foucault: Excursions in Political Genealogy

by Michael Clifford

Genealogy 2018, 2(3), 34; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy2030034 - 5 Sep 2018

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2882

Abstract

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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Beyond Foucault: Excursions in Political Genealogy)

Research

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14 pages, 241 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

A Political Genealogy of Dance: The Choreographing of Life and Images

by Julian Reid

Genealogy 2018, 2(3), 20; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy2030020 - 28 Jun 2018

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 4725

Abstract

This article provides a genealogical critique of the history and modernity of dance. In doing so it establishes the political importance of dance as an art not principally of the body and its biopolitical capacities for movement, but of images and imagination. It [...] Read more.

This article provides a genealogical critique of the history and modernity of dance. In doing so it establishes the political importance of dance as an art not principally of the body and its biopolitical capacities for movement, but of images and imagination. It traces the development of dance as an art of imagination, lost and buried in the works of Domenico da Piacenza, Jean-Georges Noverre, and Loïe Fuller, as well as its counter-movement expressed in the work of Rudolf Laban. It also locates contemporary dance within this political conflict by exploring new works, especially those of Ivana Müller, which call upon beholders to use their imaginations through the evocation of histories and memories. Such works can be understood to be deeply political, it will argue, because they work to transform society by creating time for a belief in the impossible. At its best, dance does not simply incite bodies to move but suspends movement, transforming the very image of what a body is capable of. These aims and practices of dance speak to contemporary concerns within political practice, theory, and philosophy for a reawakening of political imagination in times of crisis and neoliberal hegemony. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Beyond Foucault: Excursions in Political Genealogy)

14 pages, 302 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Foucault and Foucault: Following in Pierre Menard’s Footsteps

by Riccardo Baldissone

Genealogy 2018, 2(2), 19; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy2020019 - 23 May 2018

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3963

Abstract

In his short story Pierre Menard, autor del Quijote, Borges describes the extraordinary and paradoxical feat of an imaginary 20th century French writer who recomposes, as it were, part of Cervantes’ early modern masterpiece. Borges’ duplication of the text of the [...] Read more.

In his short story Pierre Menard, autor del Quijote, Borges describes the extraordinary and paradoxical feat of an imaginary 20th century French writer who recomposes, as it were, part of Cervantes’ early modern masterpiece. Borges’ duplication of the text of the Quijote is meant to give narrative shape to the acknowledgement that a text acquires different meanings in different epochs. This essay first sets Borges’ approach to the construction of the past within a lineage of authors, which harks back to Nietzsche and points to Foucauldian genealogies. It then renews the endeavour of Borges’ character Menard, as it reproduces significant portions of Foucault’s 1971 paper Nietzsche, la généalogie, l’histoire. Whilst the selections of the Foucauldian text are not simply rewritten, as they are given a new English translation, they are also recombined and reconsidered in the light of our contemporary cultural and political context, which underwent significant changes during the apparently short span of time that separates us from the composition of Foucault’s seminal work. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Beyond Foucault: Excursions in Political Genealogy)

14 pages, 269 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Heroes and Cowards: Genealogy, Subjectivity and War in the Twenty-First Century

by Peter Lee

Genealogy 2018, 2(2), 15; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy2020015 - 27 Apr 2018

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 4307

Abstract

From the wars of Ancient Greece to the collapsing Islamic State in the present, the same, apparently timeless protagonists appear and their stories told and re-told: the heroes, cowards and other combatants. This article proposes a framework which combines a Foucauldian genealogical approach [...] Read more.

From the wars of Ancient Greece to the collapsing Islamic State in the present, the same, apparently timeless protagonists appear and their stories told and re-told: the heroes, cowards and other combatants. This article proposes a framework which combines a Foucauldian genealogical approach with his conception of the subject as both constituted in relation to code-oriented moralities, and creatively self-formed in relation to ethics-oriented moralities (^{Foucault 1992, pp. 5, 25}), to understand how it is possible to speak meaningfully of heroes and cowards in the age of the drone and the jihadist. Section one will explore the applicability of Foucauldian genealogy as the methodological basis for understanding present combatants in the context of war. The second section will assess Foucault’s ‘modes of subjectivation’ and ‘practices of the self’ (^{Foucault 1992, p. 28}), as a means of analyzing the emergence of the subject of war over millennia, with emphasis on the ethical dimension of subjectivity that can be applied to heroes and cowards. Then the third section will use insights from Homer and Augustine to begin to illustrate how Foucault’s genealogical approach and his conception of ethical subjectivity combine to enable heroes and cowards to be meaningfully spoken of and better understood in the domain of war today. The purpose of such a study is to set out the basis on which political genealogy after Foucault can provide a nuanced conceptualization of subjectivity in modern war, as those subjects are formed, claimed, valorized and criticized by competing entities in contemporary political discourse. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Beyond Foucault: Excursions in Political Genealogy)

12 pages, 288 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Using Foucault: Genealogy, Governmentality and the Problem of Chronic Illness

by Ann Reich and Margo Turnbull

Genealogy 2018, 2(2), 13; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy2020013 - 10 Apr 2018

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 6141

Abstract

This article explores the unique contribution that Foucault’s work on genealogy and governmentality can make to the analysis of contemporary programs of government. The article uses an Australian study of the ‘problem’ of chronic illness to argue that this perspective offers valuable insights [...] Read more.

This article explores the unique contribution that Foucault’s work on genealogy and governmentality can make to the analysis of contemporary programs of government. The article uses an Australian study of the ‘problem’ of chronic illness to argue that this perspective offers valuable insights into how ‘problems’ such as chronic illness have become linked to advanced liberal discourses and practices of self-governing and self-responsibility. These insights are particularly valuable in fields such as primary health care that have a noted shortage of critical and reflective studies that explore the links between people and changing ideas of health and disease. This article details how taking up an analytics of governmentality and political genealogy informed by Foucault, facilitated the tracing of the dominant discourses and practices, and the connections to the day-to -day lives of the clients with chronic diseases. Importantly, this approach opened up a more critical consideration of the ways in which dispersed approaches to governing through programs, such as integrated care, shape and influence the lives of individuals. These dispersed ways of governing are not linear but rather unfold through ongoing relays, connections and the (re)production of discourses. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Beyond Foucault: Excursions in Political Genealogy)

12 pages, 223 KiB

Open AccessArticle

On the Genealogy of Kitsch and the Critique of Ideology: A Reflection on Method

by Andrius Bielskis

Genealogy 2018, 2(1), 9; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy2010009 - 17 Feb 2018

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 5563

Abstract

This paper examines similarities and differences between the genealogical approach to social critique and the Marxist critique of ideology. Given the key methodological aspects of Michel Foucault’s genealogy—the fusion of power and discourse and the Nietzschean notion of the aesthetization of life—the paper [...] Read more.

This paper examines similarities and differences between the genealogical approach to social critique and the Marxist critique of ideology. Given the key methodological aspects of Michel Foucault’s genealogy—the fusion of power and discourse and the Nietzschean notion of the aesthetization of life—the paper argues that Hollywood kitsch maybe interpreted as a new dispositif. A key task of the genealogy of kitsch is to analyze the effects of fake Hollywood narratives: how they form and normalize us, what kind of subjectivities they produce, and what type of social relations they create. La La Land, a 2016 American musical, is discussed as a way of illustration. Theorists of the Frankfurt School also advanced their critiques of the popular culture and its forms of kitsch; yet they followed Marx and his conception of ideology. The paper concludes that the differences between genealogy and the critique of ideology are philosophical. Foucault rejected the Marxist conception of history and the notion of ideology as false consciousness. Kitsch, for a genealogist, is formative rather than repressive; it makes people pursue banal dreams. For a Marxist critic, popular culture as a form of ideology dulls our critical capacities and, therefore, leaves the status quo of alienation intact. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Beyond Foucault: Excursions in Political Genealogy)

14 pages, 238 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Emancipating Intellectual Property from Proprietarianism: Drahos, Foucault, and a Quasi-Genealogy of IP

by Wendyl Luna

Genealogy 2018, 2(1), 6; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy2010006 - 18 Jan 2018

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 4960

Abstract

This paper argues that Peter Drahos undertakes a partial Foucauldian genealogy by emancipating intellectual property (IP) from proprietarianism. He demonstrates the dominance of proprietarianism in IP by drawing sample practices from trademark, copyright, and patent laws, and then seeks to displace the proprietarian [...] Read more.

This paper argues that Peter Drahos undertakes a partial Foucauldian genealogy by emancipating intellectual property (IP) from proprietarianism. He demonstrates the dominance of proprietarianism in IP by drawing sample practices from trademark, copyright, and patent laws, and then seeks to displace the proprietarian dominance with instrumentalism, which reconstitutes IP as a “liberty-intruding privilege.” Ironically, despite doing a genealogy, Drahos does not eradicate sovereignty altogether as Michel Foucault insists, but instead determines IP as a “sovereignty mechanism” that has a “sovereignty effect.” After explaining what Foucauldian genealogy is, the paper will explain how Drahos undertakes a genealogy of IP, while highlighting the limitations of Drahos’ analysis from a Foucauldian perspective. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Beyond Foucault: Excursions in Political Genealogy)

18 pages, 274 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperEditor’s ChoiceArticle

On the Political Genealogy of Trump after Foucault

by Bruce M. Knauft

Genealogy 2018, 2(1), 4; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy2010004 - 15 Jan 2018

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 7973

Abstract

How would Foucault have viewed Trump as President, and Trumpism in the US more generally? More realistically, how can we discern and insightfully apply genealogical insights after Foucault to better comprehend and act in relation to our current political situation in the US? [...] Read more.

How would Foucault have viewed Trump as President, and Trumpism in the US more generally? More realistically, how can we discern and insightfully apply genealogical insights after Foucault to better comprehend and act in relation to our current political situation in the US? Questions of factuality across a base register of asserted falsehoods are now prominent in American politics in ways that put assertions of scholarly objectivity and interpretation in yet deeper question than previously. The extent, range, and vitriol of alt-Right assertions and their viral growth in American media provoke progressivist resistance and anxiety, but how can this opposition be most productively channeled? This paper examines a range of critical perspectives, timeframes, and topical optics with respect to Trump and Trumpism, including nationalist, racist, sexist, class-based, and oligarchical dimensions. These are considered in relation to media and the incitement of polarized subjectivity and dividing practices, and also in relation to Marxist political economy, neoliberalism/neoimperialism, and postcolonialism. I then address the limit points of Foucault, including with respect to engaged political activism and social protest movements, and I consider the relevance of these for the diverse optics that political genealogy as a form of analysis might pursue. Notwithstanding and indeed because of the present impetus to take organized political action, a Foucauldian perspective is useful in foregrounding the broader late modern formations of knowledge, power, and subjectivity within which both Rightist and Leftist political sensibilities in the US are presently cast. At larger issue are the values inscribed through contemporary late modernity that inform both sides of present divisive polarities—and which make the prognosis of tipping points or future political outcomes particularly difficult. As such, productive strategies of activist opposition are likely to vary under alternative conditions and opportunities—including in relation to the particular skills, history, and predilection of activists themselves. If the age of reason threatens to be over, the question of how and in what ways critical intellectualism can connect with productive action emerges afresh for each of us in a higher and more personal key. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Beyond Foucault: Excursions in Political Genealogy)

196 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Situating Poligen Studies: Between Moral Enquiry and Political Theory

by Réal Fillion

Genealogy 2018, 2(1), 2; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy2010002 - 27 Dec 2017

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3128

Abstract

In this article, I argue that we can best appreciate those works that appeal to the notion of “political genealogy” as distinct forms of study by situating them between moral enquiry and political theory. They draw from moral enquiry the concern with how [...] Read more.

In this article, I argue that we can best appreciate those works that appeal to the notion of “political genealogy” as distinct forms of study by situating them between moral enquiry and political theory. They draw from moral enquiry the concern with how we ought to live but are not themselves prescriptive. They address the political constitution of our social lives but not as a theoretical object. Reversing the relation between enquiry and truth, political genealogies are historiographical studies motivated by forms of resistance that expose the will to truth of the present ordering of discourses, thereby releasing the hold such orderings have on what we think, say, and do to their on-going agonistic relations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Beyond Foucault: Excursions in Political Genealogy)

227 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Persons and Sovereigns in Ethical Thought

by Ladelle McWhorter

Genealogy 2017, 1(4), 21; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy1040021 - 20 Nov 2017

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3493

Abstract

Contemporary concepts of moral personhood prevent us from grappling effectively with contemporary social, political, and moral problems. One way to counter the power of such concepts is to trace their lineage and shifting political investments. This article presents a genealogy of personhood, focusing [...] Read more.

Contemporary concepts of moral personhood prevent us from grappling effectively with contemporary social, political, and moral problems. One way to counter the power of such concepts is to trace their lineage and shifting political investments. This article presents a genealogy of personhood, focusing on the crisis of both personhood and sovereignty in seventeenth-century England. It demonstrates the optionality of personhood for moral thinking and exposes personhood’s functions in political dividing practices. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Beyond Foucault: Excursions in Political Genealogy)

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