{"id":704,"date":"2015-11-28T23:04:43","date_gmt":"2015-11-29T04:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/foucault1313\/?p=704"},"modified":"2016-02-06T14:24:36","modified_gmt":"2016-02-06T19:24:36","slug":"foucault-713-a-walk-in-the-archive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/foucault1313\/2015\/11\/28\/foucault-713-a-walk-in-the-archive\/","title":{"rendered":"A Walk in the Archive"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jes\u00fas R. Velasco<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\"Alexandre<\/a>

Alexandre de Maitre, La M\u00e9tropolit\u00e9e<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cJe veux parler de la grande, tendre et chaleureuse franc-ma\u00e7onnerie de l\u2019\u00e9rudition inutile<\/em>.\u201d (Il faut defendre la soci\u00e9t\u00e9<\/em>, 6). Now, this useless erudition is not the \u201cfeverish laziness\u201d of those who feel part of a secret society in search of those books that, just off the press, became part of the opacity of the archives. Foucault would like to read something else, what he calls the \u201csavoirs asujettis<\/em>\u201d, \u201ca particular knowledge, a knowledge that is local, regional, or differential, incapable of unanimity and which derives its power solely from the fact that it is different from all the knowledges that surround it\u201d (8). It is this kind of discontinuous, haphazard production of knowledge, from below, that Foucault was after. He wanted to pursue, \u201cl\u2019insurrection des savoirs asujettis<\/em>\u201d, and he suggested to do it by focusing on those knowledges, that have been \u201censevelis, masqu\u00e9s dans des coh\u00e9rences fonctionnelles ou dans des syst\u00e9matisations formelles<\/em>\u201d (8).<\/p>\n

\u201cConcr\u00e8tement<\/em>\u00a0\u2013he says\u2014si vous voulez, ce n\u2019est certainement pas une s\u00e9miologie de la vie asilaire, ce n\u2019est pas non plus une sociologie de la d\u00e9linquance, mais bel et bien l\u2019apparition de contenus historiques qui a permis de faire, aussi bien de l\u2019asile que de la prison, la critique effective. Et tout simplement parce que seuls les contenus historiques peuvent permettre de retrouver le clivage des affrontements et des luttes que les am\u00e9nagements fonctionnels ou les organisations syst\u00e9matiques ont pour but, justement, de masquer. Donc, les \u2018savoirs asujettis\u2019 ce sont ces blocs de savoirs historiques qui \u00e9taient pr\u00e9sents et masqu\u00e9s \u00e0 l\u2019int\u00e9rieur des ensembles fonctionnels et syst\u00e9matiques, et que la critique a pu faire r\u00e9appara\u00eetre par les moyens, bien entendu, de l\u2019\u00e9rudition<\/em>\u201d (8). It seems that \u201cr\u00e9apparition\u201d, here (what Macey translates as \u201crevelation\u201d) is in contrary opposition to the idea of \u201creconstruction\u201d that underwrote philological research and traditional erudition. Foucault is not interested in the \u201creconstruction\u201d of something as it was, but in summoning up from the past those subjected knowledges (or subjected pieces of knowledge) in order to proceed to an effective critique of contemporary issues and contemporary problems. His entrance into the archives is not that of the \u201cfeverish laziness\u201d of the researcher (an image that most probably he borrowed from Nietzsche\u2019s second\u00a0Untimely meditation<\/em>, when he refers to \u201cder verw\u00f6hnte M\u00fc\u00dfigg\u00e4nger<\/em>\u201d in the garden of knowledge). He wants to be the other kind of archivist Deleuze talks about at the beginning of his\u00a0Foucault<\/em>, a new archivist who named himself to the position. \u201cThe new archivist proclaims that henceforth he will deal only with statements. He will not concern himself with what previous archivists have treated in a thousand different ways: propositions and phrases. He will ignore both the vertical hierarchy of propositions which are stacked on top of one another, and the horizontal relationship established between phrases in which each seems to respond to another. Instead he will remain mobile, skimming along in a kind of diagonal line that allows him to read what could not be apprehended before, namely statements\u201d (Deleuze,\u00a0Foucault<\/em>\u00a02). Those rare statements, harvested in uncommon, difficult circumstances (the alphabetical order, Deleuze suggests, on top of French typewriters, that has been recently exploited by \u00c9ric Chevillard), are what the archivist is after.<\/p>\n

Because of that, Foucault\u2019s walks in the archive are equally rich and a-systematic. And this is why they need to be again at our disposition, so that we can understand \u2013or at least question\u2014the kind of statement that the very entrance in the archive produces.<\/p>\n

We are simply giving access to some of those titles that Foucault used in\u00a0S\u00e9curit\u00e9, Population, Territoire<\/em>. Those are also titles that he was discussing with some of his closer students, in the parallel seminar they conducted (including the one studying the\u00a0variole<\/a>), and that lead to the writing of dissertations and other academic publications. One of those students was the very editor of\u00a0STP<\/em>, Michel Senellart, whose work on the\u00a0raison d\u2019\u00c9tat<\/em>\u00a0(1989, 1992), and his book on\u00a0Les Arts de gouverner. Du regimen medieval au concept de gouvernement<\/em>\u00a0(Paris: Seuil, 1995), draw considerably on Foucault\u2019s lines of questioning from\u00a0STP<\/em>\u00a0to\u00a0Le Courage de la v\u00e9rit\u00e9<\/em>, especially.<\/p>\n

This list is very far from complete. It only contains a very small set of references, that allow us to see the depth of Foucault\u2019s readings in his seminars. We would like to insist that these readings were not suggested as final ones, but as \u201cpistes de recherche<\/em>\u201d for those who were continuing their\u00a0studies at the other academic institutions.<\/p>\n

Guerry, A.-M, and S F. Lacroix.\u00a0Essai sur la statistique morale de la France: pr\u00e9c\u00e9d\u00e9 d’un rapport \u00e0 l’acad\u00e9mie des sciences<\/a><\/em>. Paris: Crochard, 1833. There are many similar publications from the same period of time, including the cartography for such a statistics about crimes, like the one contained in Balbi and Gerry\u2019s\u00a0Statistique compar\u00e9e de l’\u00e9tat de l’instruction et du nombre des crimes dans les divers Arrondissements des Acad\u00e9mies et des Cours Royales de France<\/a><\/em>. Gerry\u2019s\u00a0Statistique morale<\/em>\u00a0(which is an expression, or maybe a concept, that enjoyed some fortune in nineteenth century printed books), was\u00a0translated and summarized in English<\/a>\u00a0in 1836.<\/p>\n

As one of the main demographical sources, Foucault refers to Moheau, Jean Baptiste, and Montyon.\u00a0Recherches et consid\u00e9rations sur la population de la France.<\/a><\/em>\u00a0Paris: Moutard, 1778.<\/p>\n

At the end of his first lesson, Foucault devotes some time to Alexandre de Maitre’s\u00a0La M\u00e9tropolit\u00e9e<\/a><\/em>, published in 1682.<\/p>\n

It is well known that Foucault is extremely interested in the\u00a0physiocrats and physiocracy<\/a>. Foucault reads some of the early treatises, including\u00a0Vincent de Gournay<\/a>\u00a0and his disciples, like\u00a0Louis-Paul Abeille<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Among the less-known treatises on government techniques, Foucault reads not only canonical political treatises, but also others that are part of the popularization of political thought and political knowledge in the first years of the expansion of the printing press, including Guillaume de la Perri\u00e8re, Tholosain.\u00a0Le Miroir politique, contenant diverses mani\u00e8res de gouverner & policer les R\u00e9publiques qui sont, & ont est\u00e9 par cy devant. \u0152uvre non moins utile que necessaire \u00e0 tous Monarches, Rois, Princes, Seigneurs, Magistrats & autres qui ont charge du gouvernement ou administration d\u2019icelles.<\/em><\/a>\u00a0Paris: Robert le Mangnier, 1567. This book is also interesting because of the genealogy of the\u00a0miroir<\/em>\u00a0genre he does at the beginning, addressing it to the\u00a0garde des sceaux\u00a0<\/em>\u2013with the excuse that they both were from Toulouse. Another important set of publications studied by Foucault is Nicolas de la Mare,\u00a0Trait\u00e9 de la police<\/a><\/em>, which was published several times, provoking lasting debates. Foucault interests cover the question of the\u00a0ragion di Stato<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(see also\u00a0here<\/a>) with special interest in Giovanni Botero’s\u00a0Della ragion di Stato dieci libri<\/em><\/a>, published in Paris in 1599.<\/p>\n

Foucault\u2019s interest in the \u201cpastoral\u201d begins with his analysis of well-known Greek texts. Latin Christian texts, specially from Migne\u2019s\u00a0Patrologia Latina<\/a><\/em>, constitute an important part of his research (as even the\u00a0biblical texts<\/a>\u00a0insist on Abel as a \u201cpastor<\/a>\u201d). One of the main centers of attention, besides Augustin\u2019s\u00a0De Civitate Dei<\/em>, was Gregory\u2019s\u00a0Regula pastoralis<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jes\u00fas R. Velasco \u201cJe veux parler de la grande, tendre et chaleureuse franc-ma\u00e7onnerie de l\u2019\u00e9rudition inutile.\u201d (Il faut defendre la soci\u00e9t\u00e9, 6). Now, this useless erudition is not the \u201cfeverish laziness\u201d of those who feel part of a secret… Continue Reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1641,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38945,38941,38979],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bibliography","category-foucault-713","category-resources-7-13"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/foucault1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/foucault1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/foucault1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/foucault1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1641"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/foucault1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/foucault1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/foucault1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/foucault1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/foucault1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}