Foucault's Orient: The Conundrum of Cultural Difference, From Tunisia to Japan

Marnia Lazreg

Published by Berghahn Books 2017

Foucault's Orient

The Conundrum of Cultural Difference, From Tunisia to Japan

Marnia Lazreg

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781785336232

Overview
Contents

About this book

Foucault lived in Tunisia for two years and travelled to Japan and Iran more than once. Yet throughout his critical scholarship, he insisted that the cultures of the “Orient” constitute the “limit” of Western rationality. Using archival research supplemented by interviews with key scholars in Tunisia, Japan and France, this book examines the philosophical sources, evolution as well as contradictions of Foucault’s experience with non-Western cultures. Beyond tracing Foucault’s journey into the world of otherness, the book reveals the personal, political as well as methodological effects of a radical conception of cultural difference that extolled the local over the cosmopolitan.

Author / Editor information

Marnia Lazreg is professor of sociology at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Her latest publications include Torture and the Twilight of Empire: From Algiers to Baghdad (Princeton, 2008); and Questioning the Veil: Open Letters to Muslim Women (Princeton, 2009).

Reviews

“Written by a leading sociological theorist of gender with roots in North Africa, Foucault's Orient is the most comprehensive survey to date of the French poststructuralist's perceptions of and writings on non-Western societies… Lazreg's book is an immanent critique in the best sense of the word… Despite its generous and measured tone, Foucault's Orient offers in the end a devastating portrait of one of the most important thinkers of the last few decades, whose pioneering work on punishment and on sexuality continues to resonate.” • Contemporary Sociology

“This is a serious and pivotal book that shows the limits of Foucault’s rejection of universalism and humanism. Lazreg’s book allows us to re-read Foucault within his boundaries.” • Massimiliano Tomba, University of Padua.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	IX
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 1 The Chinese Encyclopedia and the Challenge of Difference Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
Chapter 2 Madness and Cultural Difference Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	45
Chapter 3 Foucault and Kant’s Cosmopolitan Anthropology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	62
Chapter 4 Foucault’s Negative Anthropology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
Chapter 5 Foucault’s Anthropology of the Iranian Revolution Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	122
Chapter 6 The Heterotopia of Tunisia Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	159
Chapter 7 The Enigma of Japan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	192
Chapter 8 Japan and Foucault’s Anthropological Bind Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	226
Epilogue Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	245
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	274

Language: English
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 292
Keywords: iran; the orient; cultures of the orient; key scholars; france; contradictions; non western cultures; world of otherness; personal; political; cosmopolitan; evolution; philosophical sources; western rationality; methodological effects; radical conception; cultural difference; archival research; japan; critical scholarship; tunisia

eBook

Published: October 1, 2017
ISBN: 9781785336232