Individual Project

A Letter to Foucault

doi.org

Maya Rasker publishes 'A Letter to Foucault' in 'Artistic Research and Literature', edited by Corina Caduff and Tan Wälchli, published by Willem Fink Verlag.

A Letter to Foucault

Investigating in what way some aspects of Foucault’s work can be fruitful to ‘think’ writing-as-research, a letter to Foucault as academic fiction unravels and valuates the paradoxes that emerge from connecting a dead philosopher’s work with the actuality of writing to him. It becomes clear that the Self cannot not be addressed when relating to a foreign (beautiful and intimidating) corpus of knowledge. Simply appropriating the philosopher’s words was working the wrong way around. In turning to the ‘master’ for clearance, the position of the ‘apprentice,’ the one presently speaking, must also be defined. How to investigate oneself from the position of the Self, while opening up for the work one admires? How to relate to what moves the heart?