Foucault (Merquior book)

Foucault (1985; second edition 1991) is a book about the French intellectual Michel Foucault by the Brazilian critic and sociologist José Guilherme Merquior, in which the author provides a critical evaluation of Foucault and his works, including Madness and Civilization (1961) and The History of Sexuality (1976). Foucault received praise from several scholars.

Foucault
Cover of the first edition
AuthorJosé Guilherme Merquior
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
SeriesFontana Modern Masters
SubjectMichel Foucault
PublisherFontana Press
Publication date
1985
Media typePrint (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages188 (1991 edition)
ISBN978-0006862260

Summary

Merquior provides a largely negative evaluation of Foucault's work. He argues that Foucault's works are often riddled with major errors of fact and reasoning that undermine Foucault's arguments.

Merquior notes, for example, that in Foucault's first major book, Madness and Civilization (1961), he argued that in Europe before the Enlightenment madness was relegated to the fringes of society but nonetheless seen as a type of divine wisdom engaged in dialogue with, and pointing out the foibles of, society. However, Merquior suggests that the historical record contradicts Foucault by showing that the insane were often imprisoned and treated cruelly long before the Enlightenment; that English philanthropist William Tuke and French physician Philippe Pinel did not "‘invent’ mental illness" as Foucault contended but rather built on the work of predecessors; and furthermore the motives for creating insane asylums across Europe was nowhere near as uniform as Foucault implies. He writes that, "Foucault’s epochal monoliths crumble before the contradictory wealth of the historical evidence." He compares Madness and Civilization to Norman O. Brown's Life Against Death (1959), describing them as similar calls "for the liberation of the Dionysian id."

Discussing The History of Sexuality (1976), Merquior writes that Foucault's views about sexual repression are preferable to those of Wilhelm Reich, Herbert Marcuse, and their followers, in that they have "the advantage of descriptive, if not explanatory, realism", and that Foucault is supported by "the latest historiographic research on bourgeois sex". He considers the book's second two volumes to be of higher scholarly quality than the first, and finds Foucault to be "original and insightful" in his discussion of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius and other Stoics in The Care of the Self. However, he notes that the details of Foucault's views are open to question, and suggests that Foucault's discussion of Greek pederasty is less illuminating than that of Kenneth Dover, despite Foucault's references to Dover's Greek Homosexuality (1978). In conclusion, he suggests that Foucault's widespread influence in the academic humanities is attributable less to the quality of Foucault's work and more to his fashionable quasi-Marxist habit of "bourgeoisie-bashing".[1]

Merquior does offer other scattered praise for Foucault's work, describing his early efforts at literary criticism as "brilliant" and "insightful", and applauding his use of obscure historical sources and documents to shed new light on neglected areas of inquiry.[2]

Publication history

Foucault was first published by Fontana Press, an imprint of HarperCollins, in 1985. A second edition was published in 1991. The book is part of the Fontana Modern Masters series.[3]

Reception

Colin Gordon reviewed Foucault in The Times Literary Supplement.[4] Alan Swingewood gave the book a positive review in the British Journal of Sociology, calling it "elegant and well-informed". Swingewood endorsed many of Merquior's criticisms of Foucault, and wrote that Merquior was perhaps correct to conclude that Foucault "embraces nihilism."[5] Merquior's work was praised by the critics Roger Kimball[6] and Camille Paglia, who both suggested that it shows that Foucault made elementary errors in every area he wrote about; Paglia called Merquior's exposé hilarious. Though supportive of Foucault in general, Paglia criticized Merquior for failing to discuss what she saw as Foucault's enormous debts to French sociologist Émile Durkheim.[7] The literature professor John M. Ellis called Foucault the best general account of Foucault's oeuvre,[8] while Gregory R. Johnson called it one of Merquior's "minor classics."[9] Conversely, Paul Bové dismissed Merquior's criticisms of Foucault as arrogant and stupid.[10]

gollark: I kind of agree.
gollark: OC exists, people use it (possibly more), but unlike CC it's actually quite well-managed and doesn't need an unofficial forum.
gollark: I mean "nobody cares", because "there is not much OC news".
gollark: And OC, but nobody cares.
gollark: Because this is a ***CC*** discord.

References
  1. Merquior 1991. pp. 29, 33, 121-2, 132, 135-6, 159.
  2. Merquior 1991. pp. 86, 164.
  3. Merquior 1991. p. 4.
  4. Gordon 1986. p. 626.
  5. Swingewood 1987. p. 294.
  6. Kimball 1993.
  7. Paglia 1993. p. 224.
  8. Ellis 1997. pp. 246-247.
  9. Johnson 1992. p. 154.
  10. Bové 1990. pp. viii, xxxvi.

Bibliography
Books
  • Bové, Paul; Deleuze, Gilles (1990). Foucault. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 0-8166-1675-2.
  • Ellis, John M. (1997). Literature Lost: Social Agendas and the Corruption of the Humanities. New York: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-06920-0.
  • Merquior, J. G. (1991). Foucault. London: Fontana Press. ISBN 0-00-686226-8.
  • Paglia, Camille (1993). Sex, Art, and American Culture. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-017209-2.
Journals
  • Gordon, Colin (1986). "Attacks on singularity". The Times Literary Supplement (4340).  – via EBSCO's Academic Search Complete (subscription required)
  • Swingewood, Alan (1987). "Foucault/Michel Foucault (Book)". British Journal of Sociology. 38 (2).  – via EBSCO's Academic Search Complete (subscription required)
Online articles
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