Article:

Nachdenken über “race” mit Foucault

When it comes to Foucault and questions of race, the critical challenge to date is the ready reproach of Eurocentrism—the charge that Foucault’s perspectives, derived as they are from European cultures and histories, are negligent of other parts of the modern world. In particular, the disciplinary institutions in Europe that he analyzes with brilliance were evolving during the same time period when European nations pursued their imperial and colonial enterprises overseas, but Foucault has not offered any analysis of such enterprises. This essay is an attempt to argue the relevance of Foucault’s work to the study of race in a different direction from this justified, though not necessarily intellectually productive, approach.