Re: new member intro and a query

Steve,

Your email reminded me that I forgot to say what was relevant to 
postcolonial studies about the Paul Bove article referred to by 
Spivak.  Specifically, Bove analyses the relationship between Said and 
Foucault in terms of both intellectual politics (one-upmanship, 
positioninig) as well as more substantive differences between Foucault's 
idea of the "specific intellectual" versus Said's adopted role as a 
"general intellectual" in the mode of Sartre.  This bears upon Spivak's 
criticism of the Foucauldian refusal to "speak for" the 
oppressed.  Interestingly, her best point [viz. that the subaltern cannot 
(almost by definition) speak for herself] really hits its mark more with 
Deleuze.  But she exploits the close association between the two thinkers 
to make a criticism of one count as a criticism of the other.

Personally, I think the best aspect of her important piece is not the point 
that Foucault "ignores" colonialism [as if every one is responsible for 
addressing all topics, and that if you don't address something you are in 
effect "denying" its salience] but her defence of a notion of ideology and 
class.

All in all, it's a bit of a confused argument that she makes, but it is 
still worth studying in some detail.  Because even if it doesn't all hang 
together that well, the various points she makes along the way are most 
stimulating and provocative (in the best sense of the term).

-Nate

At 09:24 AM 3/10/2005, you wrote:
> Dear Keith,
>
> There is lots of interesting work emerging on postcolonial/Foucauldian 
> lines, a couple of the ones I find most useful are below:
>
> See the shift in Said from devotion to rejection of Foucault in the 
> following two pieces: * Said E. 1972. Michel Foucault as an intellectual 
> imagination. Boundary 2, 1: 1-36. * Said E (1986) Foucault and the 
> imagination of power. In Foucault: A Critical Reader. Hoy D C (ed): 
> Blackwell, Oxford.
>
> Others took up Foucault, however, including Chatterjee as noted in a 
> previous email. For one of the most indepth applications of a 
> governmentality approach to the colonial context see:
>
> * Prakash G. 1999. Another reason: science and the imagination of modern 
> India. Princeton University Press: Princeton, N.J; Chichester
>
> But also see * Chatterjee P. 2004. The politics of the governed: 
> reflections on popular politics in most of the world. Columbia University 
> Press: New York.
>
> More textual based investigations can be seen in: * Lowe L. 1991. Critical 
> terrains: French and British orientalisms. Cornell University press: 
> Ithaca; London.
>
> And I think Behadad's incredible book also explores Foucault: * Behdad A. 
> 1994. Belated Travellers: Orientalism in the Age of Colonial Dissolution. 
> Cork University Press: Cork.
>
> There have been some interesting works by geographers along these lines, 
> for instance Clayton's work on British Columbia, Gregory's work on 
> Said/Foucault and the colonial present and Robinson's work on South Africa:-
>
> * Clayton D. 2000. Islands of Truth: the Imperial Fashioning of Vancouver 
> Island. University of British Columbia Press: Vancouver. * Gregory D. 
> 1998. Power, knowledge and geography - The Hettner lecture in human 
> geography. Geographische Zeitschrift, 86: 70-93. * Gregory D. 2004. The 
> colonial present. Blackwell: Oxford. * Gregory, D. 2005. The lightning of 
> possible storms. Antipode 36(5) 798-808 (An obituary piece for Said from a 
> Foucauldian perspective) * Robinson J. 1997. The geopolitics of South 
> African cities - States, citizens, territory. Political Geography, 16: 365-386.
>
> Corbridge et al have a forthcoming book which applies the governmentality 
> work to the development context of postcolonial India, and (excuse me) I 
> have a small chapter which attempts to make some links here too: * 
> Corbridge S, Williams G, Srivastava M and Véron R. forthcoming 2005. 
> Seeing the State: Governance and Governmentality in Rural India. Cambridge 
> University Press: Cambridge. * Legg S (forthcoming 2005) Post-Colonial 
> Developmentalities: From the Delhi Improvement Trust to the Delhi 
> Development Authority. In Colonial and Postcolonial Geographies of India. 
> Corbridge S, Kumar S and Raju S (ed): SAGE, London.
>
> Another plug: these refs are from a chapter roughly entitled "Beyond the 
> European Province: Foucault and Postcolonialism" for a book on Foucault 
> and Geography edited by Stuart Elden and Jeremy Crampton. This should be 
> out next year some time.
>
> All the best
> Steve
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Dr Stephen Legg
> Department of Geography
> University of Cambridge
> Downing Place
> Cambridge
> CB2 3EN
> www.geog.cam.ac.uk/people/legg/
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
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