ENGL309C Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Proletariat, Biopower, Biohistory
Document Summary
Influenced by marxism early in career; shared ideas about bourgeois and proletariat. Concerned with the production, circulation, and reception of discourses from renaissance to the present: note: his use of classical refers to neo-classical. Created an interdisciplinary look at discourse and power. Saw language, cultural texts, and cultural codes as part of same network. Saw all discourses within same epoch or episteme (system of related thoughts; the way we organize our knowledge; see later) as interrelated. Interested in who has the power to speak and act and who doesn"t. Concerned with power and, when an activist, with attempting to change conditions for prisoners and political dissidents from eastern europe. Later, did not believe that being interventionist could really change the formations of discourses or discursive practices: power is discourse (which cannot be changed so easily) Interested in political and cultural climate, but chose to focus on cultural issues especially in present time.
