Madness, language, literature / Michel Foucault ; translated by Robert Bononno ; edited by Henri-Paul Fruchaud, Daniele Lorenzini, and Judith Revel ; introduction by Judith Revel.
Collection of thirteen essays, for the most part unpublished. Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents:
Lectures and writings on madness, language, and literature. Madness and civilization ; Madness and civilization (presentation given at the Club Tahar Haddad, Tunis, April 1967) ; Madness and society ; Literature and madness (madness in Baroque theater and the Theater of Artaud) ; Literature and madness (madness in the work of Raymond Roussel) ; Phenomenological experience: experience in Bataille ; The new methods of literary analysis ; Literary analysis ; Structuralism and literary analysis (presentation given at the Club Tahar Haddad, Tunis, February 4, 1967) ; [The extralinguistic and literature] ; Literary analysis and structuralism ; Bouvard and PeĢcuchet: the two temptations ; The search for the absolute.
Summary:
"This remarkable volume brings together texts that reveal a unique perspective on Foucault's work on the interrelated topics of madness, language, and literature in the second half of the 1960s. Not only do these texts develop analyses and concepts that cannot be found anywhere else in Foucault's oeuvre, but they also show that Foucault's relation to structuralism in those years was far more complex and rich than he himself was ready to acknowledge. They show, more precisely, that between The Order of Things and The Archaeology of Knowledge, and specifically in relation to madness, literature, and literary criticism, Foucault turned to structuralism not only to challenge the central role attributed to the human subject, but also to analyze language and human experience as in a way detached from the historical conditions of their emergence and production. Madness, Language, Literature is organized around three main issues: the status and place of the madman in our societies; the relationship between madness, language, and literature in Baroque theater, the theater of cruelty by Antonin Artaud, and the work of Raymond Roussel; and the evolution of literary criticism in the 1960s. A study of the "absence of a work" in Balzac and of the relationship between desire and knowledge in Flaubert completes this ensemble, presenting a side of Foucault somewhat different from the one we know from the texts he published during this time"-- Provided by publisher.
Series:
France Chicago collection Chicago Foucault project Foucault, Michel, 1926-1984. Works. Selections (University of Chicago. Press). English.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.