CIV 101-02fall 2015 day two

Two approaches to analyzing cultural history• Kuhn • Foucault)

Analyzing art

Remember: I put these slides online, so you need to pay attention and ask questions more than write. Make notes only as highlights for you.

Michel Foucault

The Archeology and Genealogy Of Discursive Formations

Find supporting information on library reserve in:Foss, Sonja K., Karen A. Foss, and Robert Trapp.”Michel Foucault,” in Contemporary perspectives on rhetoric, 3rd ed. Prospect Heights, Ill.: Waveland Press, 2002.Foucault, Michel. The Archaeology of Knowledge (includes the "Discourse on Language"), 1972.

Discursive Formations Are made from the everyday structures that

govern knowledge in a culture.• Established by discourse practices.• One present at time; little overlap--not much

transition between them.– In his archeological, NO transition and/or overlap– In his genealogical approach, some transition and/or

overlap

Conceptually similar to zeitgeists and paradigms.

Rules Governing Discursive Formations

How do discursive formations get established?

Rules which control the appearance of discourse: What can be said?

Prohibitions for speaking of certain things.

Rules that establish institutional bodies as proper authorities and spokes-people for the creation of an object of discourse.

Rules concerning who is allowed to speak/write

Each culture listens to some and discredits others.

Credibility is given based on the accomplishment of certain conditions.

Certain ways of producing discourse enable credible listening.

Rules for ritual production. Rules for particularly acceptable sites.

Rules for proper forms concepts and theories must assume to be accepted as

knowledge

The proper arrangement of sayings. Stylistic rules Only certain people may participate in

generating certain types of rules.

Archeology v. Geneaology

The methods for analyzing the production of discourse in terms of the possibilities that allow it to appear and that govern its knowledge and order.

Archeology: “Layers” on “Layers” without much overlap

Geneaology: Generation Trees, with modest transitions and overlaps

Searching Archeology/Genelogyfor Discursive Formations

Uncover regularities in discursive practices, particularly the everyday.

Investigate contradictions and see how the current formation makes them fit.

Make comparative descriptions of similar discursive practices in different formations.

See change as a succession made possible by events, not merely as chronology.

How do networks of power relations work in all this?

T.S. Kuhn

Paradigms and

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Supported by Kuhn, Thomas S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 1962. (online and on reserve).

Professor Frank Pajare's (Emory University) treatments of Kuhn's book: outline ; synopsis

Challenges the usual historical take on “normal science”

Opposes the idea that science is additive, chronological, and regular• Anti-development-by-accumulation

Instead, proposes that science happens within PARADIGMS

Nature of a scientific PARADIGM

Answers currently available questions Using currently available language, theory,

world view, methods. Doesn’t “see” questions that are outside the

paradigm • At all or• As important

Treats questions and people outside the paradigm as “fringe” or worse

Phases of Paradigm development

Pre-paradigm (can only happen once in a given scientific field/discipline)• no consensus on any particular theory• several incompatible and incomplete theories• one of these conceptual frameworks leads to a

widespread consensus on terms, methods, and questions.

Phase 2- Normal Science • On we go, until, • Anomalies show up. Most get fixed; eventually,

some don’t.

Phases of Paradigm development

Phase 3- Anomalies move to Crisis. • Unresolved anomalies worry someone• Those “lunatics”/“radicals” are noisy; they get

sanctioned; sometimes they go away; other times, they make progress and win out.

Phase 4- Scientific revolution: the underlying assumptions of the field are re-examined and a new paradigm is established.

Phase 5- Post-Revolution, the new paradigm’s dominance is established and back we go to what looks like Normal Science

Phases of Paradigm development

Are incommensurable• Elements of the old and the new

paradigms don’t communicate/comport well with each other

Kuhn presented this for SCIENCE

He did not envision applying these ideas to other cultural forces

But other people have done so, with interesting results

Analyzing Art

Resources in your book Resources online: Art analysis

standards For the sake of this assignment, you

are limited to these sets (they are more than adequate).