Dynamics of Foucault"s Subjectivity - The Enlightenment and His Ethos

Dynamics of Foucault"s Subjectivity

&nbsp;&nbsp;Foucault’s conceptualization of the Enlightenment and subjectivity has been controversial in British and American literary classes. It could be said that this comes from the evolving and dynamic character of his thought because his theorizing reveals the vicissitudes of a tortuous and sometimes puzzling path. This article aims to investigate the dynamics of his subjectivity, examining especially his writings and interviews on the Enlightenment and Kant since the 1970s to improve the understanding of his subjectivity in British and American literary classes.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;This essay shows that although Foucauldian subjectivity is somewhat relevant to the Frankfurt School subjectivity, the one is different from the other in that Foucault rediscovers the ethos of transgression, i.e., "permanent critique of the present" and "a possible transgression of its limitations," when interrogating the Enlightenment and Kant. I also demonstrate that Foucault accepts the possibility of resistance and struggle against disciplinary technologies of power through this ethics. Foucault views the achievement of Kantian maturity as an attitude toward ourselves and the present which has to be translated into diverse archaeological and genealogical analysis. This article ultimately illustrates that Foucauldian subjectivity is far from Nietzschian nihilism, even though he is greatly indebted to Nietzsche for his genealogical method.