One of the things I enjoy about Foucault's work is his sense of irony. Here
are a couple of things I read today where he invokes penitential ashes on
his own head.
'I renounce all my public and private duties. Shame overwhelms me! I cover
myself with ashes! I didn't know the date of [the invention of] the baby's
dummy!' [tranlator's note: pacifier for Americans!]' (Le jeu de Michel
Foucault, Dits et Ecrits vol 3, p.329)
'Me, I conduct myself in a quite unreasonable and pretentious way, under the
guise of modesty, but it is pretention, presumption, a delirium of
presumption almost in a hegelian sense, to speak about an unknown object
with a non defined method. So I cover my head with ashes...' (Pouvoir et
savoir, Dits et Ecrits vol 3, p.405)
Clare
Clare O'Farrell
email:c_ofarrell@xxxxxxxxxxx
web page:
http://www.qut.edu.au/edu/cpol/foucault/
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