Judith Butler

Judith Butler, whose work has often drawn on Foucault, will give the 25th Society and Space lecture next week in San Francisco.

The lecture is part of the Association of American Geographers annual conference.

Details:

On sniping

One of the minor reasons that prompted me to start this blog was the background of sniping about Foucault that seems to take place daily across the web. This is a kind of opposition to Foucault and his work that never actually engages with him, or even seems to know much about him.

It’s a kind of dogmatic opposition where Foucault is hauled out to represent something the writer is opposed to. The topics vary: poststructuralism, postmodernism, history, sexuality, you name it.

I call this sniping as the writers never take a risk of exposing themselves to Foucault’s actual thinking but hide safely behind generic insults. The characteristic of sniping then is a distinct refusal to engage.