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4756225 No.4756225[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

I'm interested in postmodernism. I tried giving Foucault's "A history of sexuality part 1" a shot but didn't understand it as much as I had liked.

What do? Where should I start? Any good "guides to foucault" ? Another piece of Foucault perhaps? Another writer? Please no discouraging comments like "hurrdurr if you don't understand Foucault then dont try" and please don't recommend starting with the greeks.

>Additional information: I'm interested in postmodern contributions to political science and it's practical use, and I'll be starting my masters program this year so I want to have a good foundation in postmodernism (also interested in critical theory) before starting so I don't want to have to read 50 books starting from Plato or whoever.

>> No.4756227

That was literally the worst place to start. Why did you ignore Lyotard's the Postmodern Condition?

>> No.4756226

Also, one reason why I was a bit confused was that I've been reading in distracting environments lately (on the bus, at work in the staff room etc) so I'll try to read more carefully and focused next time I'm getting back into nonfiction

>> No.4756233

>>4756227


I just wanted to get a feel for him before getting into his more relevant work. But that is a good idea with Lyotard. Will definitely look into it.

>> No.4756237

>>4756227
because you need to read witty before him

>> No.4756253

Foucault is pretty bad and History of Sexuality especially. Read an introduction to poststructuralism and postmodernism, Madan Sarup for example (although I didn't like it). I liked Alan Schrift's Nietzsche's French Legacy.

>> No.4756284

Anyone have some good downloadable/torrentable e-books ?

>> No.4756332

>>4756284

you can try #bookz but for academic texts (especially continental, Theory-oriented, and what have you) you might have better luck using http://aaaaarg.org/

>> No.4756336

>>4756332
oh, you were one of those whiny bitches begging for an invite a few weeks ago?

>> No.4756370

>>4756336

lol wat?

>> No.4756377

>>4756370
>http://aaaaarg.org/
>begging for an invite
>bitches
yep, you were.

>> No.4756388

>>4756377

damn son you angry, not that anon

maybe you want an invite yourself? ;)

>> No.4756395

>>4756388
nah, m8, i've been on that site for my entire undergrad and MA

>> No.4756466

What? It's super easy.
Let me tell you.
Foucault is just tracing the micro-histories of certain aspects of civilization. They all amount to the same thing; The meaning and sense of these concepts (madness, sexuality, prisons, etc.) matches the definition of the power structure of the age. For example; In both Madness and Sexuality. the definition of both concepts changed from a bodily concern to a clinical concern, because they both carry a notion of otherness and this poses a threat to the predictability of human behaviour. The powers that be have always subjected anything they cannot govern to the most authorative area of study.

>> No.4756473

>>4756225
>reading french bondage fags
>ever

>> No.4756496

>>4756473
faggot detected

>> No.4757044

>>4756237
enh, I'd argue that a read-the-wikipedia-page-thoroughly level of knowledge is fine

>> No.4757322

Foo coh

>> No.4757792

Start with his stuff on governmentality if you need him for studying politics. Using governmentality to write my BA dissertation in Politics now. Quite interesting, although complex, stuff.

>> No.4758149
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4758149

Start here. Work your way up to Foucault, and pray to Father Freud and Mother Marx in hopes that one day you can become a body without organs.

>> No.4759867

wut?

>> No.4759894

You may want to look into Fredric Jameson's Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, which gives what I judge to be a pretty thorough treatise on the subject. It's a bit long, so maybe just the first couple of chapters will help you along. Linda Hutcheon's The Politics of Postmodernism and A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction will also help you build a foundation of postmodern thinking. If you feel comfortable with their distillations, then continue to read the primary sources.

>> No.4759897

>>4756225

Why are you interested in postmodernism? Everyone knows that it's not a good thing.

>> No.4759962
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4759962

if you need an introduction to foucault just read l'ordre du discours. i'm reading the la volonté de savoir and i'm getting it pretty easily after that read

>> No.4759964

>>4759962
>i'm reading the la volonté
my bad

>> No.4761017

>>4756496
Just imAgine that bald french head all greased up with two swarthy Algerian ballsacks slapping against it

>> No.4761907

>>4759894
If you are going to read this strand, you really need to read the reaction from historiography to it. Historians think that the "late blooming" of philosophy into hermeneutics of texts is endearing but that their reading techniques, particularly context, are laughable. Marwick. Two kinds.

>> No.4761925

>>4759897
Maybe he wants to know why on his own without believing everything he's told like a fucking sheep. yep, there's people like this irl even if you can't believe it.

>> No.4761947

READ GOVERNMENTALITY STUFFFF

>> No.4763617

>>4757044
yeah Lyotard is not a very strong reader of Wittgenstein. He basically just appropriates language games. Orthodox late-Wittgenstein rejects essentialism, but also thinks language is in a sense objective in that it must point to things external to the self.

>> No.4763635

sounds dumb but just start with wiki articles, including postmodern itself. pursue the authors/ideas you like, disregard what you don't.

i can summarise history of sexuality 1 for you: its hard to understand because he's responding to a long dialogue on sex and he refers to a lot of previous speakers (greeks, catholic doctrine, freud, reich, eastern ideas, etc.). dw about most of that, what's important is this: the way psychoanalysis has framed the question of sex and power is always in terms of REPRESSION, as if there were some natural sexuality that gets crushed by powerful institutions and ideologies (hence you heard in the 60s all that shit about "sexual liberation"). foucault challenges this, though he doesn't say repression doesn't exist. he argues that relations of power PRODUCE sexuality rather than repress them.

tl;dr contrary to gaga we are not "born this way" but made this way by history.

>> No.4763791

>>4757044
pleb

>> No.4763805
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4763805

>>4756225
I used Foucault's discourse "theory" as basis of my master thesis. Foucault has a few interessting ideas but he kept changing and reimagening everything until the day he died. You would have to read most of his stuff to get a feeling for the things he developed but hey will bring you to no conclusion. Rather read the things which are based on his works.

Also he wrote als his things in french and the translations are fucking confusing.