During week 1, we will meet Thursday at 12p in PLC 314 to discuss with Ladelle McWhorter her unpublished essay titled "In Perpetual Disintegration: Foucault’s Body". This has been distributed to CGC participants. An abstract of the paper follows here:
Foucault's descriptions of bodies as inscribed surfaces of events and volumes in perpetual
disintegration have led some critics to believe that he embraces a radical form of social
constructionism wherein even the material world is a product of discursive practices
and there is no such thing as nature. Some have contended that this position leaves us
with no viable account of subjectivity, freedom, or resistance and thus no basis for any
sort of reasoned political activism. This talk will explore the question of just what is at
stake in Foucault's radical rethinking of bodies with attention to the work of 18th century
physician Benjamin Rush, 19th century educator Edouard Seguin, and conceptions of
bodies in contemporary science and society.
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