[Reader-list] Foucault as a genealogist : Response to Sadan

[ARNAB CHATTERJEE]

Dear Sadan,
            Thank you! Your prompt response actually
begins the discussion where I gues others will soon
join in and we shall all learn and unlearn  from each
other in a very very creative way.
  You do recognise Foucault and I think let us limit
ourselves to a few texts in the beginning. I shall
keep aside Derrida and Agamben on archives, since none
of them claimed to have been practising genealogy like
Foucault. And my hunch was simply this : to involve
many who have been doing things on archives etc and
make such an involved statement as you've done. It is
not a comment on yr text in the Censor book. But your
one might be engaged later while we discuss memory vis
a vis Foucault and Nietzsche. I'm perturbed by one
question here and let me state that for all :
genealogy has a problem with origins ( singular or
not) and therefore distrusts history but still
Foucault calls for heavy documentation using volatile
sources : What is the difference between sources and
origins?
    And Sadan, neither I'm making a case for the non
existence of archives. I'm far from making any such
logistical suggestions, I'm troubled by the compulsion
with which the question of the archive is driven at
some who have been trying to practise something
else.This question remains to be settled, yes I am
sincere here and I can quote you major incidents here
and abroad. Let us try to find a way out.
So, its purely an academic question for me and I think
all of us.
    More soon
love 
arnab




--- "sadan at sarai.net" <sadan at sarai.net> wrote:

> Dear Arnab,
> thanks for suggestion to reread Foucault on
> archives. Agamben may be
> another person to consider in this excercise. Tow
> quick respond, we also
> need to read Foucault's geneology, Nietzsche... as a
> point in between his
> earlier 'Archeology' and his lecutures... and then
> his power/knowledge.
> The point i was trying to raise in my article though
> is not whether we need
> archives or not but how archives can be profitably
> seen from vantage points
> of different sets of people.
> thanks.
> sadan.
>  
> On 4:53 pm 01/03/08 ARNAB CHATTERJEE
> <apnawritings at yahoo.co.in> wrote:
> > Dear friends,
> >        Now atlast I'm geared up to rise and make
> > reviews of sentences we talked and questions we
> > answered or left them out at  our last meeting in
> > Delhi.
> > First my conversation with mahmood farooqui and
> this
> > is simultaneously for Sadan Jha and Ritwik
> > Bhattacharya ( our own Kolkata archive theorist)
> as
> > well ( having read sadan's  stuff on archive in
> > CENSOR..book etc. and Ritwik's research on the
> archive
> > and our own debate ehether pornography could have
> an
> > archival living or not). Does philosophical
> history
> > need archival materials? Does genealogy need
> archives?
> > My answer is unequivocal "No". I'll go into the
> > speculated details in my next post-- a bit of
> detail,
> > that is. But I'll first submit to mahmood farooqui
> and
> > my friends to reread Foucault's 'Nietzsche,
> genealogy
> > and History' because there is stuff for both sides
> and
> > I think Foucault simply puts his own oeuvre down
> by
> > claiming a case for vast source materials once and
> > then declaiming by saying archival materials have
> > their origin in a sort of non archival trace. I'll
> > argue, we could start by asking again , whether
> the
> > necessity of archives arises from within the
> archives.
> > If not, what are the consequences?
> > And another hint,Foucault is helped by Nietzsche
> here,
> > but consider Nietzsche's career as a genealogist(
> e.g
> > of values): how much of  a source materialist he
> was,
> > how deep referential?
> >
> >     Lets get onto the game, the outwork once more.
> > Un happy new year to all
> > arnab
> >
> >
> >       DELETE button is history. Unlimited mail
> storage is just a
> > click away. Go to
> https://edit.india.yahoo.com/config/eval_register
> 
> 



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