Frame Analysis
Question 2B – Essay Plan.
Foucault, Rubin and Butler.
Foucault and discourse.
• Michael Foucault (926-84), philosopher, historian and activist was one of the most influential of thinkers whose work is generally categorised as poststructuralist.
• Foucault was a gay man who died of AIDS in 198, after his death his life and work were subject to a series of attacks which claiming to seek the ‘truth’ of Foucault work.
• His work and life, achievements and demonization’s, have made him a powerful model for many gay, lesbian and other intellectuals, and his analysis of the interrelationships of knowledge, power and sexuality was the most important intellectual catalyst of queer theory.
• Foucault studied discourse as a system of representation.
• He was interested in the rules and practices that produced meaningful statements which provided language for talking about a particular topic.
• Discourse is about the production of knowledge through language.
• The idea that discourse produces the objects of knowledge and that nothing which is meaningful exists outside discourse – we use the term discourse to emphasise the fact that every social configuration is meaningful. The concept of discourse isn’t about whether things exist but about where the meaning comes from.
• Foucault and Queer
• Foucault is not the origins of queer theory, nor is queer theory the destination of Foucault thinking.
• Given his interest in the history of sexuality and his radical denaturalisation on dominant understandings of sexual identity, Foucault is key post structuralism influence on the development of Queer theory.
• Foucault’s ‘History of Sexuality’ (1970) offered a powerful counter-narrative to the understanding of Victorian sexual repression giving way to liberation of the 20th C
• Vital feature of Foucault’s argument is that sexuality is not a natural feature or fact of human life but a constructed category of experience which has historical, social and cultural
Foucault, Rubin and Butler.
Foucault and discourse.
• Michael Foucault (926-84), philosopher, historian and activist was one of the most influential of thinkers whose work is generally categorised as poststructuralist.
• Foucault was a gay man who died of AIDS in 198, after his death his life and work were subject to a series of attacks which claiming to seek the ‘truth’ of Foucault work.
• His work and life, achievements and demonization’s, have made him a powerful model for many gay, lesbian and other intellectuals, and his analysis of the interrelationships of knowledge, power and sexuality was the most important intellectual catalyst of queer theory.
• Foucault studied discourse as a system of representation.
• He was interested in the rules and practices that produced meaningful statements which provided language for talking about a particular topic.
• Discourse is about the production of knowledge through language.
• The idea that discourse produces the objects of knowledge and that nothing which is meaningful exists outside discourse – we use the term discourse to emphasise the fact that every social configuration is meaningful. The concept of discourse isn’t about whether things exist but about where the meaning comes from.
• Foucault and Queer
• Foucault is not the origins of queer theory, nor is queer theory the destination of Foucault thinking.
• Given his interest in the history of sexuality and his radical denaturalisation on dominant understandings of sexual identity, Foucault is key post structuralism influence on the development of Queer theory.
• Foucault’s ‘History of Sexuality’ (1970) offered a powerful counter-narrative to the understanding of Victorian sexual repression giving way to liberation of the 20th C
• Vital feature of Foucault’s argument is that sexuality is not a natural feature or fact of human life but a constructed category of experience which has historical, social and cultural