a fine web of relations interwoven with the
conditions of social action and, in part, from his
suggestion that even overtly resistant acts are
ultimately reabsorbed into these relations of
power
power establishes a set of relations that enable social
interaction and understanding. Thus, the very act of articulating
a political agenda, to the extent that that agenda is intelligible,
becomes enmeshed within relations of power
statements of knowledge
How can rhetoric be used in struggles
against domination and in pursuit of
freedom?
Domination = freedom (334)
NOT Foucault-ian equation
Think more in terms of cooperation
Faucault: power is subtle network of
relationships that organize
and define objects- enable
and limit human actions
Fluctuations between power and resistance
domination: block in a field of relations of power,
to render impassive and invariable: Denial of
reversibility
freedom by Foucault:
uncertain point of
reversibility: Stasis between
power and resistance- point
of possibility
freedom does not consist of
the implementation of new
relations of power, but in the
moment of possibility which
precedes such reforms;
spaces of freedom
exist at limit points of power and knowledge
power: spaces of freedom
opening of space of freedom is contingent upon emergence of a space of dissension
opening within the relations of
power/knowledge that allows for
invention of new discourses and new
relations
new relations made
reconstituting subjectivity
thought: displacement from the technologies of one's own subjectivity
turn one's actions into problems to be objectively probed and questioned
self is an object
freedom and though exist at a point between the present and the possible
The universal intellectual makes the fundamental
mistake of completing the circuit connecting critique
and transformation. By offering both the critique of the
present and proposing its alternative, the crucial
moment of displacement is avoided. Without the
experience of uncertainty, thought is not engaged,
concrete freedom is not provoked and dissension does
not emerge.
don't just give us all the answers
displacement from present
new discourses and relations of power
an experience that changes us, that prevents us from always being the same, or from having the
same kind of relationship with things and with others that we had
knowledge / power / subjectivity
dissension freedom thought
discourse resistance
subjectivity: prior object of
dissention freedom
thought
dissension is not a new discourse, but the process of subjecting old
and new discourses to a reflective/ inventional pause. Freedom is
not the reversal of power relations, but the reflective/inventional
moment before such a reversal. And, thought is not the emergence
of a new subjectivity, but the reflection on ones self and ones
actions as a problem and the inventional moment before some new
way of living comes forth.
space of thought
uncertainty the emergence of incoherence or an encounter
with the incompatiblewhere the habitual ways of knowing
and doing fail. In other words, entering a space of
dissension, a space of concrete freedom.
spaces of thought are immanent
within the technologies of
subjectivity
criticism is a matter of flushing out thought
displacement
spaces of dissension:
knowledge
points of uncertainty and possibility
productive points: creation
if there was no
resistance, there
would be no power
relations... resistance
comes first; power
relations are obliged
to change with
resistances
friction between power and
resistance represents the point
where tension produces
possibility
resistance
Critics say he is limited; he does not
provide for viable political action
Resistance, then, cannot be generated within
these relations of intelligibility but emanates
from gaps within the lines of intelligibility
gaps in intelligibility become places where resistant acts can disrupt power
disruptions in "sense"
gaps in power make room for the creation of resistant acts
New acts: invention
knowledge
subjectivity
gaps are more than just spaces from
which resistant actions emerge:
antecedent gaps
invention
spaces of dissension
emergence of statements
within broad fields of discourse:
Discourse formations
What circumstances
allow certain
statements? Where?
incoherence and contingency
contradition
prevent discourse from being self-contained
limit points of discourse
point where enforced consensus is
disabled and various new discourse may
emerge
illusion of authority
and absoluteness
(try to hide the
incoherence and
contingency)
emergent contradictions
productivity
<--- this is how!
Then change and transformation!
spaces of dissension
invention spaces
Social Theory
emergence of new discourse,
directions for actions, and subject
positions has been posed in terms
of resistance to existing
relationships with power
in moving against the power in relationships, we
create new discourse: teens or minorities making
up jargon
where Aristotle, and many rhetoricians since, conceives of invention in terms of commonplaces, Foucault
seems to position invention within the decidedly uncommon places of uncertainty, paralysis, and displacement.
how different must be the faculty of observing the available means of persuasion, when the given situation is
one of uncertainty, paralysis and displacement? What kind of an art is employed in those situations when the
culturally agreedupon is unacceptable, when the act of speaking is unrecognized, or when the style of
presentation is dismissed? Foucault suggests the existence of such an art, a mode of invention from which new
discourses, directions, and subject positions are issued, and such an art clearly falls within the purview of
rhetoric.
Foucaultian conception of invention challenges us to conceive the spaces from which the new emerges.
superficial transformations
there would seem to be instances where new discourses emerge without a reversal of power relations, or where
practices change without the existence of thought
struggle with these spaces of invention will provoke a degree of uncertainty, frustration, dispute, rejection or
reflection within existing disciplinary regularities.