Foucault, Subjectivity, and Identity: Historical Constructions of Subject and SelfAn examination of the notions of subject and self from the Sophists to Foucault. Although the writings of Foucault have had tremendous impact on contemporary thinking about subjectivity, notions of the subject have a considerable history. In Foucault, Subjectivity and Identity Robert Strozier examines ideas of subject and self that have developed throughout western thought. He expands Foucault's idea of the subject as historically determined into a wide-ranging treatment of ideas of subjectivity, extending from those expressed by the ancient Sophists to notions of the subject at the end of the twentieth century. Strozier examines these traditions against the background of Foucault's work, especially Foucault's later writings on the history of self-relation and the subject and his idea of historical subjectivity in general. Strozier explores various periods of western thought, notably the Hellenistic era, the early Italian Renaissance, and the seventeenth century, to show that almost every treatment of subjectivity is related to the Sophist idea of the originating Subject. Drawing on a wide spectrum of writings - by Epicurus and Seneca, Petrarch and Montaigne, Dickens and Conrad, Fr |
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Contents
PREFACE | 9 |
How Men Invented Themselves | 21 |
Foucault and the Discourse of Subjectivity | 51 |
Chapter 3 | 79 |
Foucault and Materialist Reasoning II | 111 |
Chapter 5 | 120 |
Foucault Historical SelfRelation and the Ancients | 139 |
Chapter 6 | 166 |
Renaissance Humanism Interiority and SelfRelation | 175 |
Chapter 8 | 236 |
Kants Dehistoricization of the Subject | 255 |
Common terms and phrases
according actual agency allows already analysis appears argues argument assumed attempt becomes begins body Butler cause central century chapter claim complex conception concern consciousness constituted construction contingent critique culture deployment Descartes desire determined difference discourse effect emergence example existence experience external fact Father focus Foucault Freud function further gender genealogy given historical human identity imitation important individual institution interiority issue Kant kind knowledge later limit male material means method mind narrative nature necessary noted notion objective opposition organization origin performance period perspective Petrarch philosophical pleasure political position possibility potential practical present prior produced question reason reference relation representation represents resistance result says seems self-reflexive self-relation Seneca sense sexual shift social Sophist speak specific stage structure subject of knowledge takes theoretical theory things thinking thought traditional turn understanding universal volume