Structuralism and Post-Structuralism: An Interview with Michel Foucault

In: Telos, Band 55, S. 195-211

Abstract

An interview concerned marginally with poststructuralism but more often with Michel Foucault's views on French intellectual history since WWII. Topics discussed include: Nietzsche, Marxism in conjunction with other schools of thought, Foucault's books, & the notion of postmodernism. Structuralism is interpreted as merely one aspect of a broader twentieth-century tendency toward formal thinking. The interrelation between phenomenology & structuralism is briefly noted, & it is suggested that the major intellectual currents of the 1960s occurred as a result of dissatisfaction with the phenomenological theory of the subject. Foucault's own central problematic is revealed to be the problem of wahr-sagen (saying the truth), & the attempt of the subject to speak the truth about itself. The history of reason & rationality is pondered, & the recent history of the French Left is considered. The question of the continued validity of the Marxist paradigm is posed, & it is noted that French thought after WWII involved repeated attempts to integrate Marxism with other philosophical positions, including phenomenology, psychoanalysis, structuralism, & Nietzschean theories. J. Weber.