Tanke - Foucaults Philosophy of Art

Philosophy, Aesthetics and Cultural Theory Series Editor: Hugh J. Silverman, Stony Brook University, USA

The Philosophy, Aesthetics and Cultural Theory series examines the encounter between contemporary Continental philosophy and aesthetic and cultural theory. Each book in the series explores an exciting new direction in philosophical aesthetics or cultural theory, identifying the most important and pressing issues in Continental philosophy today.

Also available:

Derrida, Literature and War, Sean Gaston

Forthcoming:

The Literary Agamben: Adventures in Logopoeisis, William Watkin Philosophy and the Book, Dan Selcer

Series contact information:

Prof. Hugh J. Silverman, Philosophy, Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, New York 11794-3750 USA
http://ms.cc.sunysb.edu/~hsilverman/

Bloomsbury Academic
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First published 2009

Joseph J. Tanke 2009

Joseph J. Tanke has asserted his right under the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: HB: 978-1-8470-6484-4

PB: 978-1-8470-6485-1
ePUB: 978-1-4411-6675-3
ePDF: 978-1-4411-7713-1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

To Molly

This book was begun in the Philosophy Department at Boston College and was completed at California College of the Arts in San Francisco and Oakland, California with the generous support of the Chalsty Initiative in Aesthetics and Philosophy. Conversations with faculty, friends, colleagues, and students in both institutions have no doubt contributed to what I have done well in these pages. I would like to thank David Rasmussen, Kevin Newmark, and Richard Kearney for years of intense conversation and instruction. I would also like to thank the numerous friends whose passionate pursuit of wisdom encouraged me to devote myself fully to this project. In particular, I have profited from my friendships with Ed McGushin, Colin McQuillan, Brenda Wirkus, Dan Russell, Mat Foust, Pete DeAngelis, Leslie Curtis, Adam Konopka, and Julia Legas. This book has benefited greatly from Jim Bernauers expertise, reading, and advice. His legendary seminars on Foucault provided the initial inspiration, and his good judgment saw that my interest in Foucault and visual art could form the basis of fruitful research. A special thanks is owed to my colleagues and students at CCA. Your creativity, collegiality, and commitment to interdisciplinary production and study are daily reminders of arts importance and potential. I hope that you will see traces of our mutual inquiry in these pages. Finally, I would like to thank Hugh Silverman, Series Editor, as well as Sarah Campbell and Tom Crick at Continuum for their enthusiasm for this project.

None of this work would have been possible without my family, especially my mother, who has supported my education and encouraged my work for many years. Above all, my partner Molly Slota, to whom this book is dedicated, deserves my undying gratitude for all that she has done to ensure its completion. You have done more for me than I can enumerate here, so I will simply say that you continue to make of your life a work of art and demonstrate how the care of the self is deeply rooted in the concern for others. One can offer no higher tribute in a Foucaultian context.

To facilitate reference, the following abbreviations were adopted throughout:

MICHEL FOUCAULT