An assessment of the foucauldian archaeology with regard to literary history

Abstract

This study examines the coherence the Foucauldlan archaeology as a method of discursive analysis and scrutinizes the possibilities it holds for a materialist literary history. The analysis of Foucault's archaeologies of the asylum, the clinic and the human sciences traces the manner in which the archaeology dissociates its e lf from the domains of Marxism and structuralism, and establishes its specific domain of operation. The conceptual apparatus constructed within that domain is scrutinised for coherence and the criticisms and misconceptions of the archaeology are discussed. The existing domain of literary history is analyze and found to be in a state of crisis due to the epistemological weaknesses of empiricism and historicism that are uncovered at the level of the problematic. Foucault's concepts of a general history and of knowledge (savoir) are analyzed and found to be wrought in resistance to these weaknesses. Lastly, the study proposes directions for the historical analysis of literary texts through the application of the archaeology, specifically the concepts of the statement the discursive formation and the episteme, to two literary texts showing the changes in the function of language between these texts and the epistemic configurations within which they participate.