In France, a country that awards its intellectuals the status other countries give their rock stars, Michel Foucault was part of a glittering generation of thinkers, one which also included Sartre, de Beauvoir and Deleuze. One of the great intellectual heroes of the twentieth century, Foucault was a man whose passion and reason were at the service of nearly every progressive cause of his time. From law and order, to mental health, to power and knowledge, he spearhea… More >>
#1 by Anonymous on July 1, 2010 - 8:19 pm
Let’s be childish enough to use coarse categories: “Discipline&Punish” is Foucault’s most beautiful book. “The Order of Things” is the most brilliant (that’s why it made him a star). Let’s also say “The History of Sexuality” is his most exciting book. Then “The Archaeology of Knowledge” is the most fascinating: it is Foucault’s attempt to write a theory of what he is doing. And it is a brilliant failure: this is the only time that we see Foucault, the master of brilliant formulation, completely naked. It is endearing to watch how he is trying to write a piece of philosophical theory, while all his other books demonstrate how unnecessary such theory is.
This is no light reading and the English translation is barely comprehensible. I bet that there is a serious mistranslation on any given page. With good translations at hand, some notorious readers (Foucault lovers and Foucault enemies alike) might actually have understood what the words “discourse” and “dispositif” mean. Countless articles and books would not have been written. That’s why a good German translation would have been even more desirable (the one in print is as miserable as the English one, same bet)…
Rating: 5 / 5
#2 by Giovanni Mantilla on July 1, 2010 - 10:41 pm
“Archaeology Of Knowledge” finds Foucault at his barest, trying to build up his own theory. Like others have said, it is fascinating to see how much he tries to encompass and how extremely difficult his own enterprise is. Foucault spends many pages trying to explain to us what he means by “discoursive formation”, “object formation”, “formation of concepts”, etc., and the place where his own theory stands vis-à-vis a so-called “history of ideas”. You can learn lots from this book, because, like myself, sometimes you get lost in Foucault’s magistral writing, his fabulous way of weaving history and thus cannot clearly follow his own particular method of research. If you want to see some of his (earlier, almost stricly discourse-oriented) key concepts clarified, reading this book will prove very fruitful. As always, you’re left with a lot of questions and with a distinctive feeling of “now what?”. But then again, that’s what’s so utterly beautiful and engaging about Foucault… he forces you to think for yourself and provides you of the right tools to do it.
I read the spanish translation of this book so I can’t comment on the english one, but the contents of this book are priceless.
Rating: 5 / 5
#3 by Dave P on July 1, 2010 - 11:27 pm
Do not be fooled by those who dismiss this as a mere curiousity in Foucault’s oeuvre. This difficult work is absolutely essential for understanding his central concept of ‘discourse’. All of his works are better understood after a careful reading of this difficult work; this is true even for the later ‘geneaological’ works.
Rating: 5 / 5
#4 by Rachel Bussan on July 2, 2010 - 1:44 am
Foucault is not a light read – you will spend several hours just trying to interpret this text. His wording is unusual and complicated, and sentences can run on for almost a paragraph. Sometimes you’ll just want to tear your hair out.
Nonetheless, this book is important. The theories Foucault presents in this book, while nearly impossible to cite correcly, do reappear in many modern texts, especially ones about modern literature or the academy. My suggestion is you read it with the assistence of others, preferably including someone with more academic experience (i.e. a professor.)
Rating: 3 / 5
#5 by Valerie F. Arena on July 2, 2010 - 4:23 am
My sympathies to anyone who has to read this. This was something I had attempted to read on recommendation of a professor. Later on in my graduate studies I had to read it. It is a required reading for anyone studying rhetoric. If you can get through it, you are destined for greatness. It is reading that requires intense concentration and no interruptions!
Rating: 2 / 5