Sorry its taken so long for a new post. But here we go.
In a recent lecture I attended, a question involving the status of relevance of post-colonial and post-structural theory was asked. The lecturer, a post-colonial theorist from Northwestern University argued that it Foucault's genealogies involving the evolution of the modern era tend to romanticize the pre-modern. Although I hadn't really considered it, I agree with this statement. Foucault does little to describe the life lead by individuals before the market system develops. If any of you know of lectures or writing where he critiques the state of Europe before the development of the market system please let me know! This is important because Giorgio Agamben argues that his 'state of exception' and the existence of an excluded people within a population has always existed, that it hadn't developed out of the creation of a market system. I use both in my thesis so I would love a basis for comparison.
Second, the lecturer argued that post-colonial theory, for example theory developed by Gayatri Spivak cannot be relevant because it does not challenge the patriarchal, misogynistic structure that exists and has existed. This is a critique of Spivak that I haven't heard out of the readings I have researched. From what I've understood of Spivak, she aims to critique a male-dominated, euro-centric critique of hegemonic discourse, for example Foucault, and Deleuze and Guattari. I wish I would have been able to ask more questions about this position, but this was not the main idea of the lecture. Please if anyone could expand it would be very useful.
Hopefully I can keep up with the discussion. Cheers!
