Foucault the Author?

Or should we see Michel Foucault as the author, whose work combines brilliant insight and eccentric detail, uniting contemporary philosophical practice with the archaeology of the many documents he patiently retrieved from history? And what should we exclude, given the huge shifts in theoretical position over his career?

Foucault himself problematized the meaning of authorship- a function, he claimed, which resolved or hid many contradictions.

We must dispense with our habit of looking for an author's authority, and show instead how the power of discourse constrains both author and his utterances.

So Foucault was reluctant to write his own biography or have someone do it for him. But many have, since his death.

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