Power and Difference: A Derrida and Foucault Encounter

Type :

Term papers

Pages :

10 pages

Format :

.doc

Published date :

08/08/2007

Category :

Philosophy & literature

Sub category :

Literature

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Summary :

The Company of Ghosts and the Reason solution
1. Foucault's attempt to reconstruct what he calls an archaeology of silence
2. Rose's daughter as a fledgling example of reason's controlling tendencies
3. The relationship between Rose and the Process-Server
4. Faults with the language of reason
Platform and the Eros solution
1. The protagonist Michel in Houellebecq's Platform
2. The chapter 'Philosophical Interlude'
3. A somewhat hedonistic solution to life's problems
4. An Eros venture is always one that limits the freedoms of the participants
Conclusion
Works cited

Abstract

The works of Jacques derrida and Michel foucault discussed here explore relationships of power in Western language and social structures. These relationships can be difficult to detect and are thus often overlooked, even when one searches rigorously. We will find that such relationships are relationships of presumed order, of hierarchy, and that such hierarchies are neither always justifiable nor always desirable.

In foucault and derrida: The Other Side of Reason, author Roy Boyne explores the points at which the ideas of these two philosophers converge and the points at which they depart. Boyne writes that in general, for derrida, foucault's approach to thinking would always lead to the idea of a false utopia, and for foucault, derrida's approach to thinking would always lead to the false god of Reason (4). The problem in their misunderstanding, this knocking of heads, is a problem of difference and power-the power of reason has supplanted god, and the power of utopia has supplanted reason. Similar problems of difference and power appear in varying forms in Lydie Salvayre's The Company of Ghosts and Michel Houellebecq's Platform. With the help of ideas presented by foucault and derrida, I will examine the roles of power and difference in these two novels-how each novel narratively resembles the philosophical issues that derrida and foucault present, and what, if any, conclusions we might take from such power relationships.