Poststructuralism and history

Michel Foucault's poststructuralism is developed through a series of historical studies. His work is remarkable in seeking to change the way history is written, while resisting a straightforward move to structuralist methods. He is therefore more of a philosopher-historian than simply one or the other. Foucault will not be presented here simply as a historian; this would restrict the significance of his thought within wider ideas of poststructuralism. However, a reading of the importance of his thought for history and for philosophy will be one of the main lines of enquiry.

Mid-career, Foucault reflected on his new philosophy of history in relation to structuralism in the influential book The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969). The book is key to understanding Foucault's relation to structuralism, a relation that includes common themes as well as divergences in terms of methods and philosophical presuppositions. It comes between Foucault's early works Madness and Civilisation (1961), Birth of the Clinic (1963) and The Order of Things (1966) and his later works Discipline and Punish (1975) and the three volumes of The History of Sexuality (1976, 1984, 1984). Foucault published many more works around these main books; these are often brought together in influential collections such as Power/Knowledge (1980).

This chapter will follow through his arguments by drawing out three key aspects:

1. • Foucault's new philosophy of history;

2. • the outlines of a poststructuralist way of writing history and acting upon it in the present;

3. • the contrasts between this philosophy and way of writing and structuralist methods.