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The Archaeology of Knowledge (French: L'Archologie du Savoir )
is a book
written byMichel Foucaultand was published in 1969. Theme: Any
text must be free from any preconceived ideas. No specific
model
should be followed which can make them blind. We shall find
corelations but thatmust not be done by blinding prejudices. While
interpreting any text, we shouldbe innovative.
The desired goal of Foucault is- to treat discourse as
practices. This practice willnot be a group of signs/language/
speech. There must be non-specificity, a kind of indeterminacy. We
should be open-minded and all the possibilities of interpretation
should be there.
DISCOURSE: The term discourse has several definitions. In the
study of language, discourse often refers to the speech patterns
and usage of language,dialects, and acceptable statements, within a
community. It is a subject of study inpeoples who live in secluded
areas and share similar speech conventions.
STATEMENT: Foucault directs his analysis toward the "statement",
the basic unitof discoursethat he believes has been ignored up to
this point. "Statement" is theEnglish translation from Frenchnonc
(that which is enunciated or expressed),which has a peculiar
meaning for Foucault. "nonc" for Foucault means thatwhich
makespropositions,utterances,or speech actsmeaningful. In
thisunderstanding, statements themselves are
notpropositions,utterances,or speechacts.
Rather, statements create a network of rules establishing what
is meaningful, andit is these rules that are the preconditions
forpropositions(assumption, that maybe true or false),utterances(a
complete unit of speech in spoken language), orspeech
acts(utterances that must involve an action. For ex, Close the door
is aSpeech Act but he is a good boy is not a Speech Act.)to have
meaning.Depending on whether or not they comply with the rules of
meaning, agrammatically correct sentence may still lack meaning and
inversely, an incorrectsentence may still be meaningful. Statements
depend on the conditions in whichthey emerge and exist within a
field of discourse. It is towards huge entities of statements,
called discursive formations, that Foucault aims his analysis.
TEXT- PART 1: Para 1 and 2:Foucault is trying to present his
position aboutsome present ideas and thoughts. For example-
tradition- which is a sumtotal of some beliefs, ideas thoughts,
attitudes, etc. Tradition is useful as you can decidewhich is good
or bad. It is a kind of belief for certain ideology.
We must examine and re-examine our established norms and values-
the things
offered to us. We must not blindly accept the syntheses offered
by the powercircle of tradition. Para 3: We must question and
analyze the factors behind each grouping and
dIvision. DIvisions and groupings are facts of discourse that
need to be analyzedand reanalyzed.
Para 4: Generalization with a view to unifying something must be
suspended. Forexample, book and aeuvre (complete works or omnibus
or collection of aparticular author). We have a tendency to findout
unity in particular authors allworks. Each book of that author is
materially (from the point of view of subjectmatter) individualized
but when the unity is to be sought in the aeuvre, isnt thematerial
unity becomes a weak one?
Here the material unity is based on the discursive unity. (
Hamlet andKing Lear are individualized. But the discursive unity is
the theme of mans essential
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loneliness. Hamlet and As You Like It is tragedy and comedy and
they are alsoindividualized. But Shakespeares omnib us highlight
the unity of universal humanappeal which is sought discursively.)
In fact, unity itself is constructed upon acomplex field of
discourse.
Para 5: Once the unity of any group is suspended, the entire
field is set free formore discourses. Foucault says we should not
consider things or issues only on thebasis of homogeneity. Rather,
we should try to find out something new,distinguishing, discursive
which obviates the base of similarity.
Para 6: We should rediscover beyond the intention of theauthors
message, hisstatements. We must reconstitute another discourse,
rediscover what is hidden inhis message: We do not seek below what
is manifest, the half silent murmur of another discourse. We must
decide the specific existence of a statement .
Para 7: We must ask ourselves what is the purpose of suspending
all the acceptedunities. The thing is, we cannot confine ourselves
to any fixed idea. Rather, weshould be open-minded to all sorts of
criticisms, reviews regarding any statement.
Para 8: If we isolate the occurrence of the statement or event,
we do it only with aview to grasping other forms of regularity,
other types of relations- relationsbetween statements, relations
between groups of statements, relations betweenstatements and group
of statements and groups of statements and events of a
quitedifferent kind.
Para 9: By freeing discourses of all the groupings, one is able
to describe otherunities by means of a group of controlled
decisions. ( The three purposes of factsof discourse are: 1. It can
give you new ideas, concepts. 2. It can lead you tofurther
discourses. 3. All the unities of any statement/text/discourse can
bedescribed categorically)
Dispensing with finding a deeper meaning behind discourse would
appear to leadFoucault toward Structuralism. However, whereas
structuralists search forhomogeneity in a discursive entity,
Foucault focuses on differences that tend histheory to be sounding
Postsructiralism. Also he is deeply concerned with
NewHistoricism.
Foucault wants discourses to be never ending. Discourses will
lead to debates,arguments-an ever flowing source of further
discourses, statements that will leadto discursive formation. That
discursive formation will enrich all other branches of knowledge
depending on necessity. Its utility can be seen in the case of
NewHistoricism.
NEW HISTORICISM: New Historicism is atheoryapplied to literature
that suggests
literature must be studied and interpreted within the context of
both the history of theauthor and the history of the critic. The
theory arose in the 1980s, and with StephenGreenblatt as its main
proponent, became quite popular in the 1990s. Unlike
previoushistorical criticism, which limited itself to simply
demonstrating how a work wasreflective of its time, New Historicism
evaluates how the work is influenced by thetime in which it was
produced. It also examines the social sphere in which the
authormoved, the psychological background of the author, the books
and theories that mayhave influenced the author, and any other
factors which influenced the work of art.All work is biased. Its
main focus is to look at things outside of the work, instead of
reading the text as a thing apart from the author.
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-theory.htmhttp://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-theory.htm
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LOUIS MONTROSE : Louis Adrian Montrose is an American literary
theorist andacademic scholar. His scholarship has addressed a wide
variety of literary, historical,and theoretical topics and issues,
and has significantly shaped contemporary studies of Renaissance
poetics,English Renaissance theatreandElizabeth
I.(TheEnglishRenaissance was aculturalandartistic movementin
Englanddating from the early16th century to the early 17th century.
This era in English cultural history issometimes referred to as
"the age of Shakespeare"or "theElizabethan era").
Montrose was an influential early proponent of New
Historicism,especially asit applied to the study of early
modernEnglish literature and culture. He iscurrently Professor of
English Literature at theUniversity of California, SanDiego.
In Professing the Renaissance: The Poetics and Politics of
Culture, Loui sMontrose examines and defines New Historicism and
the ideologies that formthe lifeblood of the theory. He states that
New Historicism examinessimilarities between the social
infrastructure i.e. history, culture, society,politics,
institutions, class, and gender and language. Language,
explainsLouis, is limited in power and is a cultural construct
similar to the socialinfrastructure.
He goes on to explain that New Historicism, like the subject it
studies, is notimpervious to subjectivity, and New Historicists
interpretations are shaped byculture and bias will always be
present. Also, a canonical work itself is not thesubject of study
for the practitioner of this theory. Instead, the time frame
andcultural happenings of the period are topics of scrutiny;
culture is a text to beinterpreted, a collection of stories.
New Historicism considers works of literature as historical
texts. NewHistoricism suggests a subjective approach to literature
and was practicedmostly in Renaissance studies. According to new
historicism, identity isfashioned by social institutions.
Literature is another form of social construct,which is produced by
the society and in return is active in reshaping theculture of that
society.
Montrose defines two key terms in his discussion of New
Historicism: theHistoricity of Texts and the Textuality of History.
The Historicity of Textsconcerns the written word: all models of
writing are influenced by cultural andsocial stimuli. This not only
includes the texts studied (or, rather, events inhistory) but also
the way in which said texts are studied (in other words, themethods
used by the practitioner).
The Textuality of History, on the other hand, states that (due
to subjectivity or
bias) there is no access to a full and genuinely authentic past.
Because of this,the work historians produce seeing as they are
utilizing unauthenticdocumentation on which to base their work is
not only to an extentfraudulent by default, but it also perpetuates
the problem of un-authenticity forfuture examiners.
In the end, Montrose states, the best one can do is realize that
by the merepractice of analyzing the interplay of culture and
history, one is adding to andparticipating in the very thing he is
analyzing.
(According to Jeffrey N. Cox and Larry J.Reynolds, "new"
historicism can bedifferentiated from "old" historicism "by its
lack of faith in 'objectivity' and'permanence' and its stress not
upon the direct recreation of the past, but rather
the process by which the past is constructed or invented")
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