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Volume 22, Issue 3_4, December 2006
Introduction : literature and art as diagnosis and dissent in the work of Michel Foucault
Authors: Susan Van Zyl and Ulrike Kistner
Source: Journal of Literary Studies 22, pp 200 –210 (2006)
Foucault&apos;s Las Meninas and art-historical methods
Author Yvette Gresle
Source: Journal of Literary Studies 22, pp 211 –228 (2006)
Die fokus van hierdie artikel val op die maniere waarop Foucault se Las Meninas in kunsgeskiedkundige tekste voorgestel en beoordeel is en poog om die belangrikheid daarvan vir kunsgeskiedenis oor die algemeen en die "Nuwe Kunsgeskeidenis" van die 1970&apos;s en 1980&apos;s in die besonder te bepaal. Kunsgeskiedkundiges het nog nie die historiese, filosofiese, teoretiese en metodologiese dimensie van Foucault se verwoording van &apos;n argeologie van die denkstrukture en die belangrikheid van hierdie ondersoek genoegsaam by die skryf van kunsgeskiedenisse betrek nie. Nietemin het Foucault se ongeëwenaarde lesing van Velàzquez se skildery - losgemaak van kunsgeskiedkundige metodes - die weg gebaan vir &apos;n beoordeling van die beperkinge van kanonieke kunsgeskiedkundige verklarende prosedures. Die kunsgeskiedkundiges Svetlana Alpers, Norman Bryson en Eric Fernie het byvoorbeeld die aandag gevestig op die bekrompenheid van die dissipline; die klem wat dit plaas op die kunskenner; &apos;n beheptheid met die konstruksie van betekenis aan die hand van argiefstukke en ikonografiese en stilistiese ontleding. Teen diè agtergrond het Foucault baanbrekerswerk verrig met sy toeligting van Las Meninas se selfrefleksiewe besinning oor die aard van voorstelling.
This article focuses on the ways in which Foucault&apos;s Las Meninas has been represented and critiqued in art-historical texts and endeavours to gauge its significance to the discipline, in particular, the "New Art History" of the 1970s and 1980s. Art historians have not yet adequately engaged the historical, philosophical, theoretical and methodological dimension of Foucault&apos;s articulation of an archaeology of the structures of thought and the significance of this inquiry to the writing of art histories. However, Foucault&apos;s unprecedented reading of Velàzquez&apos;s painting - unfettered by art-historical methods - played a significant role in facilitating a critique of the limitations of canonical art-historical interpretive procedures. Art historians Svetlana Alpers, Norman Bryson and Eric Fernie have, for example, drawn attention to the insularity of the discipline; its emphasis on connoisseurship; its preoccupation with the construction of meaning via archival documents and iconographic and stylistic analysis. Against this framework Foucault&apos;s elucidation of Las Meninas&apos;s self-reflexive meditation on the nature of representation was groundbreaking.
"Enslaved Sovereign" : aesthetics of power in Foucault, Velàzquez and Ovid
Author Sira Dambe
Source: Journal of Literary Studies 22, pp 229 –256 (2006)
Michel Foucault&apos;s essay on Las Meninas has created spaces for diverse analyses of Velàzquez&apos;s painting and of Foucault&apos;s reading of its intimations. My purpose in this paper is to argue for an interpretation of both painting and essay that is shaped by an exploration of aesthetics of power rather than by perspectival considerations. To further delineate Velàzquez&apos;s interest in the inherently antagonistic relation between artistic expression and institutional power, I extend my inquiry to his Fable of Arachne, a painting that could have served Foucault&apos;s aesthetic and epistemological purposes well, and to a text from Ovid&apos;s Metamorphoses, in which this painting is firmly rooted.
Michel Foucault se essay oor Las Meninas het die moontlikheid geskep vir uiteenlopende interpretasies van Velàzquez se skildery asook van Foucault se eie vertolking van die betekenis daarvan. My doel in hierdie stuk is om aan te voer dat sowel die skildery as die essay geïnterpreteer moet word deur middel van &apos;n verkenning van die estetika van mag, en nie aan die hand van perspektiwiese oorwegings nie. Ten einde Velàzquez se belangstelling in die inherent antagonistiese verhoudig tussen artistieke uitdrukking en institusionele mag verder te karakteriseer, brei ek my ondersoek uit na sy Fabel van Arachne, &apos;n skildery wat Foucault se estetiese en epistemologiese doeleindes goed kon gedien het, asook na &apos;n teks uit Ovid se Metamorphoses, waarin hierdie skildery stewig gewortel is.
A homo calculator at large : reading the late work of Foucault in the light of Ivan Vladislavic&apos;s "Villa Toscana"
Author Susan Van Zyl
Source: Journal of Literary Studies 22, pp 257 –274 (2006)
This essay takes the form of a reading of Foucault&apos;s late work on the subject and power, particularly that concerned with the technologies of self, and the implications this work has for an understanding of the relationship between questions of government and those of self-government in modernity. Focusing on the figure of Jeff Budlender, central character of the opening story of Ivan Vladislavic&apos;s The Exploded View, the essay explores how, from the point at which the state engages in biopolitics - that is, systematically invests in a technology of individuals - forms of government cease to translate spontaneously into practices of self-government. The result, expressed at the level of the individual, is, I argue, the often uneasy attempt to orientate the self to the individual self while at the same time taking cognisance of that self&apos;s position in the social entity as a whole. This conflicting position is, I suggest, vividly revealed in Vladislavic&apos;s account of the inner life of Budlender, demographer and statistician, as he attempts to make sense of South Africa, himself, and even the woman he loves in ways that alternate between brief concerns with the individual followed by more lasting preoccupations with the group, finally doing justice to neither.
Hierdie essay is in die vorm van &apos;n lesing van Foucault se latere werk oor die onderwerp van mag, veral die mag wat betrekking het op die tegnologieë van die self, en die implikasies wat hierdie werk inhou vir &apos;n begrip van die verhouding tussen regerings- en selfregeringskwessies in moderniteit. Deur te fokus op die figuur Jeff Budlender (sentrale karakter van die openingsverhaal van Ivan Vladislavic se The Exploded View), ondersoek die essay hoe - van die punt waar die staat biopolitiek begin toepas (d.i., stelselmatig in &apos;n tegnologie van individue belê) -regeringsvorme ophou om spontaan in selfregeringspraktyke omgesit te word. Ek voer aan dat die resultaat, uitgedruk op die vlak van die individu, die dikwels ongemaklike poging is om die self ten opsigte van die individuele self te oriënteer, terwyl daar terselfdertyd kennis geneem word van dié self se posisie in die sosiale entiteit as geheel. Voorts voer ek aan dat hierdie konflikbelaaide posisie tekenend onthul word deur Vladislavic se relaas van die innerlike lewe van Budlender, die demograaf en statistikus, na gelang hy poog om Suid-Afrika, homself, en selfs die vrou wat hy liefhet te verstaan op maniere wat kortstondige bemoeiing met die individu afwissel met meer blywende ingesteldheid op die groep, sodat daar uiteindelik nie reg geskied aan een van die twee nie.
Author Ulrike Kistner
Source: Journal of Literary Studies 22, pp 275 –293 (2006)
This article traces the dispersal of language, its significance for Foucault&apos;s idea of Literature in modernity, and the paradigmatic role of Hölderlin&apos;s writings within it.This path centrally involves outlining the interface, in the modern episteme, between language and Literature, the double withdrawal of the gods / God, the double division between reason and madness, and the "mad poet / philosopher / genius" within it. The article draws together Foucault&apos;s archaeological account of Literature, and his genealogy of madness and of genius, in order to elucidate the "truth", judged by the terms of a genealogical account, and the "falsity", judged by the terms of an archaeological account, of the proverbial epithet "the mad genius / poet / philosopher" associated with the name of Hölderlin.
Hierdie artikel ondersoek die verstrooiing van taal, die belangrikheid daarvan vir Foucault se idee van die letterkunde in die moderniteit en die paradigmatiese rol van Hölderlin se werke daarin. Die ondersoek skets primêr die koppelvlak in die moderne episteme tussen taal en letterkunde, die dubbele onttrekking van die gode / God, die dubbele skeiding tussen rede en waansin, en die "waansinnige digter / filosoof / genie" daarbinne. Die artikel trek Foucault se argeologiese verslag van die letterkunde en sy genealogie van waansin en van genialiteit saam ter verheldering van die "waarheid", beoordeel volgens die terme van &apos;n genealogiese verslag, en die "valsheid", beoordeel volgens die terme van &apos;n argeologiese verslag, van die spreekwoordelike epiteton "die waansinnige genie / digter / filosoof" wat met die naam Hölderlin geassosieer word.
Passing through the screen : Pierre Boulez and Michel Foucault
Author Mary Rorich
Source: Journal of Literary Studies 22, pp 294 –321 (2006)
In hierdie referaat ondersoek ek Foucault se klein essay "Pierre Boulez: Passing through the Screen", waarin hy terugskouend uit "n tagtigeroogpunt na Boulez se musiek van die vyftigerjare en sy bydrae tot die projek van estetiese modernisme kyk. Voordat ek &apos;n taamlik deeglike lesing van die essay doen, ondersoek ek Boulez se rol in die twintigste-eeuse seriële musiektradisie wat deur Arnold Schoenberg en Anton Webern ingelui is. Foucault se lesing van Boulez fokus aanvanklik op die komponis se radikale wegbreking van die verlede; ek voer aan dat Foucault hier in &apos;n sekere sin verwys na sy eie wegbreking van &apos;n filosofiese tradisie wat gegrond was in ervaring en konvensionele betekenis. Voorts voer ek aan dat Boulez se eksperiment in die wetenskaplike en formele heelwat gemeen gehad het met die metodologieë uit die geskiedenis van die wetenskap, wat later die kern van Foucault se denkwyse sou vorm. Ek dwaal kortliks af van Foucault se essay wanneer ek aanvoer dat Gilles Deleuze ten volle begryp het waarom Foucault die projek van seriële musiek as belangrike model beskou het; trouens, Deleuze se opvatting van &apos;n "atonale logika" toon aan hoe die groepe stellings (énoncé) in verskillende episteme in dieselfde verhouding tot mekaar staan as verskillende manifestasies van die series in &apos;n seriële komposisie. Wanneer ek terugkeer na Foucault se kommentaar oor Boulez, ondersoek ek kortliks belangrike toonsettings van Char en Mallarmé en toon ek aan hoe hulle sekere kenmerke van &apos;n Foucauldiaanse analise deel: verbindings tussen woorde, beeld en musiek word nooit ondergeskik gestelaan konvensionele betekenis nie maar word "slegs geregverdig deur die nuwe noodwendigheid wat hulle daargestel het". Vervolgens kyk ek na Boulez as dirigent en vertolker wat die verlede in die musiek benader in die mening dat wat hy in die hede doen dié verlede kan verander; die projek lyk nogmaals Foucauldiaans. Ten slotte besin ek oor die feit dat sowel Boulez as Foucault ewe en terselfdertyd skeppend en analities was in hulle werk, wat hulle telkens in staat gestel het om denke aan te wend om anders te kon dink.
In this paper I examine Foucault&apos;s little essay, "Pierre Boulez: Passing through the Screen", in which he looks back from the vantage point of the 1980s at Boulez&apos;s music of the 1950s and his contribution to the project of aesthetic modernism.Before making a fairly detailed reading of the paper, I examine Boulez&apos;s role in the twentieth-century serial tradition inaugurated by Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern. Foucault&apos;s reading of Boulez focuses initially on the composer&apos;s radical break with the past; I suggest that Foucault was in a certain sense talking about his own break with a philosophical tradition founded in experience and conventional meaning. Boulez&apos;s experiment in the scientific and formal, I continue, had much in common with the methodologies from the history of science that were to become central to Foucault&apos;s thinking. Departing briefly from Foucault&apos;s essay, I argue that Gilles Deleuze fully understood why Foucault considered the project of serial musican important model; in fact Deleuze&apos;s notion of an "atonal logic" shows how the bodies of statements (énoncé) in different epistemes have the same relationship to each other as do different manifestations of the series in a serial composition.Returning to Foucault&apos;s commentary on Boulez, I briefly examine important settings of Char and Mallarmé, showing how they share features of a Foucauldian analysis:conjunctions between words, image and music are never subordinated to conventional meaning but are "justified only by the new necessity they have established". Finally I look at Boulez as a conductor and interpreter who approaches the past in music with a belief that what he is doing in the present can change it;again the project seems Foucauldian. In conclusion I reflect that both Boulez and Foucault were similarly and at the same time creative and analytical in their work,able always to use thought in order to be able to think differently.
Confession and public life in post-apartheid South Africa : a Foucauldian reading of Antjie Krog&apos;s Country of My Skull
Source: Journal of Literary Studies 22, pp 322 –344 (2006)
Truth commissions around the world have given the technique of confession a new public currency and political power. Many works of literature thematising these commissions have also adopted the technique of confession for literary purposes. In this paper I bring Foucault&apos;s understanding of the technique of confession, and his discourse on the role of public intellectuals in modernity, to bear upon an examination of Antjie Krog&apos;s literary reflection of the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), entitled Country of My Skull (1998). I look at how this text, and Krog&apos;s subsequent public intellectual status as a witness of the TRC, perpetuate the technique of confession without problematising it in ways that Foucault&apos;s work would suggest is necessary.
Waarheidskommissies die wêreld oor het die tegniek van skuldbelydenis met &apos;n nuwe openbare geldigheid en politieke mag beklee. Talle literêre werke wat hierdie kommissies dokumenteer het ook die tegniek van skuldbelydenis vir literêre doeleindes ingespan. In hierdie referaat pas ek Foucault se opvatting van die tegniek van skuldbelydenis en sy diskoers oor die rol van openbare intellektuele in moderniteit toe op &apos;n ondersoek na Antjie Krog se werk Country of My Skull (1998). Ek kyk hoe hierdie werk, en Krog se daaropvolgende openbare intellektuele status as getuie van die Waarheids-en-versoeningskommissie (WVK) die skuldbelydenistegniek perpetueer sonder om dit te problematiseer op wyses wat Foucault se werk suggereer noodsaaklik sou wees.
To be a cosmopolitan : Lewis Nkosi and Breyten Breytenbach : review article
Source: Journal of Literary Studies 22, pp 345 –357 (2006)
Using as a starting point the recent publication of two review anthologies, the paper enters a debate that has currency in both South Africa and abroad: What purchase has the cosmopolitan project - as Kwame Anthony Appiah asks in his new book, Cosmopolitanism - in a world increasingly conservative post-9/11? To focus on South Africa, if Nkosi and Breytenbach were self-styled cosmopolitans, what would constitute their value in our literature, indeed in our society?
Hierdie artikel gebruik as uitgangspunt die onlangse verskyning van twee resensiebundels om aan &apos;n debat deel te neem wat in Suid-Afrika sowel as in die buiteland relevant is: Wat is die sin van die kosmopolitaanse projek - soos Kwame Anthony Appiah vra in sy nuwe boek Cosmopolitan - in &apos;n wêreld wat sedert 9/11 toenemend konserwatief raak? Met betrekking tot Suid-Afrika, kan gevra word watter bydrae Nkosi en Breytenbach as selfgenoemde kosmopolitane in ons literatuur en inderdaad in ons gemeenskap lewer.