Post-Structuralism (Post-Modernism) Flashcards
What is Discourse?
The term Discourse describes a formal way of thinking that can be expressed through language, a social boundary that defines what can be said about a specific topic.
How or why is Discourse used?
- Discourse affects our view on all things
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- Discourses are seen to affect our views on all things; it is not possible to avoid discourse. For example, two notably distinct discourses can be used about various guerrilla movements describing them either as “freedom fighters” or “terrorists”. In other words, the chosen discourse provides the vocabulary, expressions and perhaps also the style needed to communicate.*
What are the problems/limitations of Discourse?
- It studies only the set of things said
- Does not take into account collective meaning of statements
- Considered to be the basic unit of things said “the statement (énoncé)”
- Foucault defines a “Discourse” as a ‘way of speaking’. Thus, his method studies only the set of ‘things said’ in their emergences and transformations, without any speculation about the overall, collective meaning of those statements, and carries his insistence on discourse-in-itself down to the most basic unit of things said: the statement (énoncé).*
Where was Discourse first cited?
Foucault
1969
The Archaeology of Knowledge
Where was Power/Knowledge first cited?
Foucault
1969
The Archaeology of Knowledge
What is Discourse often compared to?
Marx’s concept of Ideology.
What is Power/Knowledge?
- Power = all-pervasive system
- Knowledge = informs regime of power
- Foucault described power as an all-pervasive system. Foucault described the gradual becoming of a particular regime of power, which went hand in hand with forms of knowledge. Power and knowledge became one.*
How or why is Power/Knowledge used?
Knowledge domains – épistèmes – provided ‘rational’ arguments for sustaining a particular power regime.
- The birth of the modern prison went alongside the emergence of modern criminology, psychology and psychiatry, and sociology. These knowledge domains – épistèmes – provided ‘rational’ arguments for sustaining a particular power regime.*
What are the problems/limitations of Power/Knowledge?
Society is inconceivable without power - it is productive rather than purely negative.
What is Capillary Power?
Power that stretches into the smallest and most private aspects of life.
- Capillary power is the power that stretches into the smallest and most private aspects of life. The capacity of power to circulate throughout a society.*
How or why is Capillary Power used?
- Challenges notions of stratification
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- Capiliary power challenges the notions of stratification, instead requiring that attention be paid to power in an everyday sense as felt through relationships.*
Where was Capillary Power first cited?
Foucault
1976
The History of Sexuality
What is Capillary Power often compared to?
- Triage of Capillary Power, Biopower & Governmentality
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- Often considered as triage of Capillary Power, Biopower and Governmentality (a way of life which everything from individual to state is regimented, disciplined and controlled).*
What is Biopower?
- Power that controls the way we live our lives
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- Biopower is a power that controls the way we live our lives as physical entities, through hygiene, public health, formal education “for achieving the subjugations of bodies and the control of populations”.*
Where was Biopower first cited?
Foucault
1976
The History of Sexuality
