Michel Foucault: Subversions of the Subject

This study analyzes Foucault's interaction with the history of ideas, undertakes a genealogy of the subject that subverts conventional philosophical history, and develops a Foucauldian intellectual history. It begins with an account of the history of ideas and argues that historians of ideas have come to depend on the idea of a transparent self-reflexive subject. A detailed account of Foucault's work and its relation to the history of ideas follows, the aim being to show that Foucault's concepts of genealogy and archaeology can be used to reconceptualize the history of ideas. The book concludes with an evaluation of genealogy and its place in the history of ideas.