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The Archaeology of Knowledge & The Discourse on Language (Paperback)

~ (Author) "The use of concepts of discontinuity, rupture, threshold, limit, series, and transformation present all historical analysis not only with questions of procedure, but with theoretical..." (more)
Key Phrases: enunciative analysis, enunciative field, enunciative regularities, General Grammar (more...)

3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

A necessary guide to Foucaults often difficult ideas ... and to his overall historical ambition, which is to define the soil out of which contemporary events in a given period grow. - Times Literary Supplement

He is a brilliant writer. - Maurice Cranston

Next to Sartres - Search for a Method and in direct opposition to it, Foucaults work is the most noteworthy effort at a theory of history in the last 50 years.

Next to Sartre's Search for a Method and in direct opposition to it, Foucault's work is the most noteworthy effort at a theory of history in the last 50 years.
–Library Journal --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

In France, a country that awards its intellectuals the status other countries give their rock stars, Michel Foucault was part of a glittering generation of thinkers, one which also included Sartre, de Beauvoir and Deleuze. One of the great intellectual heroes of the twentieth century, Foucault was a man whose passion and reason were at the service of nearly every progressive cause of his time. From law and order, to mental health, to power and knowledge, he spearheaded public awareness of the dynamics that hold us all in thrall to a few powerful ideologies and interests. Arguably his finest work, Archaeology of Knowledge is a challenging but fantastically rewarding introduction to his ideas. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Pantheon (September 12, 1982)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0394711068
ISBN-13: 978-0394711065
Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #29,491 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in this category: (What's this?)
#47 in Books > Nonfiction > Philosophy > Modern

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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!

Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
The use of concepts of discontinuity, rupture, threshold, limit, series, and transformation present all historical analysis not only with questions of procedure, but with theoretical problems. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
enunciative analysis, enunciative field, enunciative regularities, enunciative level, enunciative function, epistemological figures, archaeological description, enunciating subject, enunciative modalities, discursive regularities, psychiatric discourse, particular discursive practice, clinical discourse, discursive events, discursive formation, theoretical choices, archaeological analysis

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
General Grammar

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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!

Citations (learn more)

This book cites 11 books:

The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences by Michel Foucault in Front Matter (1), Front Matter (2), and Back Matter
Madness and Civilization (Routledge Classics) by Michel Foucault in Front Matter (1), Front Matter (2), and Back Matter
The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception by Michel Foucault in Front Matter, and Back Matter
The Birth of the Clinic (Routledge Classics) by Michel Foucault in Front Matter, and Back Matter
For Marx (Radical Thinkers) by Louis Althusser in Front Matter

See all 11 books this book cites

100 books cite this book:

Music in Renaissance Magic: Toward a Historiography of Others by Gary Tomlinson on 11 pages
Revolutions of the Word: Intellectual Contexts for the Study of Modern Literature by Patricia Waugh on 7 pages
Up Against Foucault: Explorations of Some Tensions Between Foucault and Feminism by C. Ramazanoglu on 7 pages
Culture, Media, Language: Working Papers in Cultural Studies, 1972-79 (Cultural Studies Birmingham) by Stua Hall et al on 6 pages
Research Method in the Postmodern (Qualitative Studies Series, No 3) by J. Scheurich on 6 pages

See all 100 books citing this book

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	11% buy The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences 4.1 out of 5 stars (13) $10.85
	5% buy Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison 4.0 out of 5 stars (44) $10.85
	4% buy The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1: An Introduction 3.7 out of 5 stars (31) $9.80

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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews

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3.6 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

80 of 103 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating failure, March 15, 2000

By A Customer

Let's be childish enough to use coarse categories: "Discipline&Punish" is Foucault's most beautiful book. "The Order of Things" is the most brilliant (that's why it made him a star). Let's also say "The History of Sexuality" is his most exciting book. Then "The Archaeology of Knowledge" is the most fascinating: it is Foucault's attempt to write a theory of what he is doing. And it is a brilliant failure: this is the only time that we see Foucault, the master of brilliant formulation, completely naked. It is endearing to watch how he is trying to write a piece of philosophical theory, while all his other books demonstrate how unnecessary such theory is.

This is no light reading and the English translation is barely comprehensible. I bet that there is a serious mistranslation on any given page. With good translations at hand, some notorious readers (Foucault lovers and Foucault enemies alike) might actually have understood what the words "discourse" and "dispositif" mean. Countless articles and books would not have been written. That's why a good German translation would have been even more desirable (the one in print is as miserable as the English one, same bet)...

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another (difficult) chapter in Foucault's oeuvre, October 4, 2003

By	Giovanni Mantilla (Bogota, Colombia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"Archaeology Of Knowledge" finds Foucault at his barest, trying to build up his own theory. Like others have said, it is fascinating to see how much he tries to encompass and how extremely difficult his own enterprise is. Foucault spends many pages trying to explain to us what he means by "discoursive formation", "object formation", "formation of concepts", etc., and the place where his own theory stands vis-�-vis a so-called "history of ideas". You can learn lots from this book, because, like myself, sometimes you get lost in Foucault's magistral writing, his fabulous way of weaving history and thus cannot clearly follow his own particular method of research. If you want to see some of his (earlier, almost stricly discourse-oriented) key concepts clarified, reading this book will prove very fruitful. As always, you're left with a lot of questions and with a distinctive feeling of "now what?". But then again, that's what's so utterly beautiful and engaging about Foucault... he forces you to think for yourself and provides you of the right tools to do it.
I read the spanish translation of this book so I can't comment on the english one, but the contents of this book are priceless.

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9 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indispensible, January 19, 2004

By	Dave P (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

Do not be fooled by those who dismiss this as a mere curiousity in Foucault's oeuvre. This difficult work is absolutely essential for understanding his central concept of 'discourse'. All of his works are better understood after a careful reading of this difficult work; this is true even for the later 'geneaological' works.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars The worst sort of literary self-indulgence
A friend who found Foucault's The Order of Things useful and interesting recommended that I give the Archaeology of Knowledge a try. Read more

Published 4 months ago by not a natural

2.0 out of 5 stars A tough read
My sympathies to anyone who has to read this. This was something I had attempted to read on reccomendation of a professor. Later on in my graduate studies I had to read it. Read more

Published 5 months ago by Valerie F. Arena

3.0 out of 5 stars Obtuse but important
Foucault is not a light read - you will spend several hours just trying to interpret this text. His wording is unusual and complicated, and sentences can run on for almost a... Read more

Published on February 23, 2006 by Rachel Bussan

3.0 out of 5 stars Foucault on Facts
Viewed against the background of Foucault's other books, *The Archaeology of Knowledge* is a curious work. Read more

Published on March 23, 2004 by Jeffrey Rubard

5.0 out of 5 stars Archaeology, the Archean, the Archaic, and the Archive
The Conclusion of this book (Chapter V) is perhaps the most interesting. Foucault appears to be corresponding with an undisclosed someone, wether with himself as a self critique,... Read more

Published on October 26, 2003 by Jeremy Jae

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