MICHEL FOUCAULT, info.

Not so turnip-witted! Sounds interesting, and pretty plausible, though I'm
hesitant to apply terms like 'structuralism', 'post-structuralism' and
certainly 'post-modernism' to thinkers that refused the labels. I think
looking at the role of influence can be interesting, and can help shed light
on the thinkers, but labels tend to be a bit reductionist.

Best wishes

Stuart

-----Original Message-----
From: tony.m.roberts@xxxxxxxxxx <tony.m.roberts@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: Stuart.Elden@xxxxxxxxxxx <Stuart.Elden@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thursday, January 14, 1999 14:49
Subject: Foucault and Structuralism


>Would it be totally turnip-witted to suggest that post-sructuralism is what
>strcturalism becomes once the radical alterity of other times and places is
>taken seriously? That structuralism emphasises continuity under apparent
change
>in a search for those patterns which are most broad and stable whereas
post-
>sructuralism emphasises contingency, rupture and the arbitariness of what
will
>seem essential to someone living at any given time and place from the
>perspective of some other time and place? Structuralism emphasises what we
have
>in common whereas post-structuralism emphasises how much of who we are is
only
>possible because of the accident of when and where we were born.
Structuralism
>searches for the essential and post-structuralism raises the possibility
that
>what we think of as essential might be just how things tend to happen given
>where we are.
>                   Sincerely,
>                      Tony Michael Roberts
>
>
>