This unique and original study analyzes Foucault's interaction with the history of ideas, undertaking a genealogy of the subject that subverts conventional philosophical history to develop a distinctly Foucauldian intellectual history. Through a detailed account of Foucault's work and its relation to the history of ideas, Philip Barker shows how that history can be usefully reconceptualised using Foucault's concepts of genealogy and archaeology. Locating the emergence of self-reflexive consciousness in twelfth century philosophy, and elaborating upon autobiography as a philosophical persona, Barker argues that this extremely productive approach can be used to analyze the relationship between the history of philosophy, psychoanalysis and the transparent subject.
Introduction 1.Contemporary Issues in the History of Ideas 2. History and Systems of Thought 3. A Diagram of the Middle Ages 4. Drawing the Subject 5. Subversions of the Subject Bibliography Index
Biography
Philip Barker is Honorary Research Adviser at the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies at the University of Queensland.
