Suchergebnisse

In 'An Archaeology of Political Discourse?' I examined the possibility of, and conditions for, rendering Foucault's archaeological method appropriate for ideologico-political analysis. Shane Mulligan takes issue with three aspects of my account, namely, the application of archaeology to the ideological realm, the translation of concepts, and the issue of political subjectivity. The first part of my reply tackles his initial objection and the next addresses the other two criticisms.

The resurgence of interest in the concept of ideology and its empirical application neglects the important contribution of Michel Foucault. Despite Foucault's epistemological reservations about the concept of ideology, both his archaeological and genealogical writings develop original approaches to the analysis of concrete ideologies. This article evaluates Foucault's archaeological approach by applying it to the case of Black Consciousness ideology in South Africa. When translated into an appropriate form, archaeology provides a useful set of tools for the analysis of concrete ideologies. However, it should not be taken as a free-standing approach for its employment exposes important methodological and substantive difficulties. Archaeology thus needs to be supplemented by a genealogical investigation of discursive practices and by a post-Marxist theory of hegemony.