DANIELE LORENZINI
MONDAY, APRIL 4
5-7PM
3335 DWINELLE HALL
Cosponsored by the International Consortium of Critical Theory Programs

In What Is Critique?, Foucault famously claims that critique is the movement by which the subject gives herself the right to “question truth about its effects of power” and “question power about its discourses of truth.” This oft quoted passage indicates the twofold task of what Foucault calls the “politics of truth,” but its exact implications beyond Foucault’s own work still remain largely unexplored. In order to draw these out, in this talk I address Fanon’s writings on colonialism and psychiatry, and show that their philosophical and political significance can be helpfully clarified in terms of the twofold task that Foucault assigns to the politics of truth. Conversely, I argue that Fanon’s own version of the (colonial) politics of truth sheds new light on the implications of Foucault’s genealogical inquiries into the relations between power, truth, and the subject.

For more info, contact: rfa@berkeley.edu