Extreme Foucauldian premises reduce theory to passive consumption of discourse

Evidence

The alternative direction, on the other hand, is a more sombre one, for if we accept the more extreme versions of the Foucauldian propositions (a) that whatever claims to be a fact is none other than a truth-effect produced by the ruse of discourse, and (b) that whatever claims to resist Power is already constituted as Power, then there really is nothing for Theory to do except to wander aimlessly through the effects – counting them, consuming them, producing them – and in the process submitting to the interminable whisperings of Discourse, both as Origin and as Fate. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 112

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the ‘information overload undermines independent thought’ thread — here, the equivalent move in theory: discourse as both Origin and Fate leaves no footing for critique. — connects to: Collapsing theory into narrative destroys the critical distance rational critique requires — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 371; Said’s Foucauldian ‘will to power’ discourse operates without imperialist agency or design. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures, 759; Discourse-centered theory treats knowing the world as totalizing and thus evades material change — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures, 281 (+3 more)

Related

• Discourse-centered theory treats knowing the world as totalizing and thus evades material change (similarity 0.88)
• Poststructuralist subject-dispersal theory in American dilution replaced inquiry with endless conversation (similarity 0.87)
• Invoking representational circumstances forces the realism question discourse theory evades (similarity 0.82)
• Foucault’s ‘discourse’ cannot span pre-modern centuries and capitalist eras alike (similarity 0.81)
• Foucault’s power-knowledge analytic is as anti-realist as Derrida while remaining worldly. (similarity 0.81)
• Discourse is a system through which knowledge becomes power over the known. (similarity 0.81)
• Collapsing theory into narrative destroys the critical distance rational critique requires (similarity 0.81)
• Power requires an economy of true discourses to function. (similarity 0.80)
• Effective discourse that organizes power relations constitutes a regime of truth. (similarity 0.80)
• Foucault’s later turn to the subject still lacked a strong theory of agency (similarity 0.79)
• Foucault’s later work broke from his own earlier discourse-determinism (similarity 0.79)
• Systems of power necessarily generate the subversive discursive strategies that oppose them. (similarity 0.79)
• Discourses persist beyond their origins and carry unexamined assumptions forward. (similarity 0.79)
• Said’s Foucauldian ‘will to power’ discourse operates without imperialist agency or design. (similarity 0.78)
• Discourse theory’s claim that nothing exists outside discourse is reductionism upward (similarity 0.78)