Reading Michel Foucault
Dear friends,
We are pleased to announce that the library of the Institute of Contemporary Art is launching public programs. To begin with, we have created an opportunity and invite those interested to join the reading circle of the book "The Archaeology of Knowledge," translated into Armenian and published a year ago as part of the series of translations by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Why a reading group is created and what group reading can give; "The Archaeology of Knowledge," perhaps the most challenging work by the french philosopher Michel Foucault, poses two types of difficulties during reading. First, the material itself is complex.
Foucault asserts that the material of his research is the transformation occurring from one stage to another in the process of forming human (humanitarian) knowledge and sciences. It is challenging for the average reader to grasp how this transformation can be turned into material for theoretical research. The linguistic and stylistic features of the text are also problematic. The work is almost illegible due to the fact that these two complexities are presented in the book semantically and syntactically intertwined.
The group reading is conducted by the translator of the book, Nazareth Karoyan.
During the reading sessions, he will not only help participants to navigate through the next chapter of the work but also share personal experiences accumulated during the translation of the book, occasionally enriching this experience with theoretical insights about reading. They'll discuss why one should not rush while reading, or which parts of any challenging book should be quickly scanned through and which passages should be read slowly or paused at times.
Since the work consists of eight parts along with the introduction and conclusion, the number of meetings will be the same.
In each session, Nazareth Karoyan will discuss and clarify both the obscure points in the passage read and provide recommendations for reading the next chapter.
The membership fee is AMD 24,000:
The registration deadline is November 12th.
Apply here.
A schedule of reading days:
November 14, 19:00 - 21:00
- Introduction (R. Panosian)
- Translator (N. Karoyan)
- Introduction
November 28, 19:00 - 21:00
- The unities of discourse
- Discursive formations
- The formation of object
December 12, 19:00 - 21:00
- The formation of enunciative modalities
- The formation of concepts
- The formation of strategie
December-26, 19:00 - 21:00
- Remarks and consequences
- Defining the statement
January 9, 19:00 - 21:00
-The enunciative function
-The description of statements
-Rarity, exteriority, accumulation
January 23, 19:00 - 21:00
- The historical a priori and the archive
- Archaeology and the history of ideas
- The original and the regular
February 6, 19:00 - 21:00
- The comparative facts
- Change and transformations
- Science and knowledge
February 20, 19:00 - 21:00
- Conclusion