Of(f) Course: Michel Foucault, the Mobile Philosopher and his Dreamworlds. Issue 1 (2nd January 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Papastephanou, Marianna
• Is Part Of: Critical horizons. Volume 20:Issue 1(2019)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 19
• Publication Date: 2019-01-02
• Subjects: Iranian revolution -- parrhesia -- utopia -- modernisation -- knowledge -- history; Critical theory -- Periodicals; 142.05
• DOI: 10.1080/14409917.2019.1563994
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1440-9917

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Foucault extolled the Iranian revolution and, anticipating the havoc that his public intervention in favour of the revolution would create, he wrote: "I can already hear the French laughing, but I know that they are wrong". Examining Foucault's (so unlikely) valorisation of certainty and the partisan affectivity it bestows upon knowledge and truth, I read his unusual engagement with the Iranian revolution against the grain. A major tendency is to approach Foucault's Iranian writings as aberration; against this tendency, I read them as an effect of Foucault's specific epistemic and utopian optics. Through a critical reading of neglected aspects of Foucault's comments on Iran, I argue that much nuance is missing when damning critiques fail to see why and how Foucault's interest in an active rather than folklore non-European political identity unveils deeper tensions of his own worldview and outlook on international politics and interrogates mainstream appraisals of Foucault's political philosophy.