Book Section
Arianna Sforzini
Revolution
Making a Break in History
The aim of this essay is to provide an analysis of Foucault’s use of the notion of revolution in the reports he wrote for Il Corriere della Sera during his two trips to Iran in September and November 1978. Foucault critically frames the historical and philosophical concept of revolution, in order to oppose it to the spreading revolts against the Shah, which embody the simple and negative opening of the possibility of a transformation in history. Yet is it possible to reactivate the notion of revolution in a non-restrictive sense in order to think about the role and the possibility of political revolts and freedom today?
Keywords: Kant; Foucault; Iran; revolt; historical transformation; freedom; political spirituality
Rights: © by the author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
| Title |
Revolution
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| Subtitle |
Making a Break in History
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| Author(s) |
Arianna Sforzini
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| Identifier | |
| Description |
The aim of this essay is to provide an analysis of Foucault’s use of the notion of revolution in the reports he wrote for Il Corriere della Sera during his two trips to Iran in September and November 1978. Foucault critically frames the historical and philosophical concept of revolution, in order to oppose it to the spreading revolts against the Shah, which embody the simple and negative opening of the possibility of a transformation in history. Yet is it possible to reactivate the notion of revolution in a non-restrictive sense in order to think about the role and the possibility of political revolts and freedom today?
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| Is Part Of | |
| Place |
Berlin
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| Publisher |
ICI Berlin Press
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| Date |
22 January 2019
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| Subject |
Kant
Foucault
Iran
revolt
historical transformation
freedom
political spirituality
|
| Rights |
© by the author(s)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
|
| Language |
en-GB
|
| page start |
163
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| page end |
169
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| Source |
Re-: An Errant Glossary, ed. by Christoph F. E. Holzhey and Arnd Wedemeyer, Cultural Inquiry, 15 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2019), pp. 163–69
|
References
- Afary, Janet, and Kevin B. Anderson, Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of Islamism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005)
- Foucault, Michel, ‘Réponse de Michel Foucault à une lectrice iranienne’, in Dits et écrits, II: 1976–1988, text no. 251, p. 708 (first publ. in Nouvel Observateur, 731 [13 November 1978], p. 26), in English as ‘Foucault’s Response to Atoussa H.’, trans. by Karen de Bruin and Kevin B. Anderson, in Afary and Anderson, Foucault and the Iranian Revolution, p. 210
- Foucault, Michel, ‘Il mitico capo della rivolta dell’Iran (Le chef mythique de la révolte de l’Iran)’, in Dits et écrits, II: 1976–1988, text no. 253, pp. 713–16 (first publ. in Corriere della sera, 103.279 [26 November 1978], pp. 1–2), in English as ‘The Mythical Leader of the Iranian Revolt’, trans. by Karen de Bruin and Kevin B. Anderson, in Afary and Anderson, Foucault and the Iranian Revolution, pp. 220–23
- Foucault, Michel, ‘Una polveriera chiamata islam (Une poudriere appelée islam)’, in Dits et écrits, II: 1976–1988, text no. 261, pp. 759–61 (first publ. in Corriere della sera, 104.36 [13 February 1979], p. 1), in English as ‘A Powder Keg Called Islam’, trans. by Karen de Bruin and Kevin B. Anderson, in Afary and Anderson, Foucault and the Iranian Revolution, pp. 239–41
- Foucault, Michel, ‘À quoi rêvent les Iraniens?’, in Dits et écrits, II: 1976–1988, text no. 245, pp. 688–94 (first publ. in Nouvel Observateur, 727 [16 October 1978], pp. 48–49)
- Foucault, Michel, ‘Vivre autrement le temps’, in Dits et écrits, II: 1976–1988, text no. 267, pp. 788–90 (first publ. in Nouvel Observateur, 755 [30 April 1979], p. 88)
- Foucault, Michel, Dits et écrits, ed. by Daniel Defert, François Ewald, and Jacques Lagrange, 2 vols (Paris: Gallimard, 2001)
- Foucault, Michel, The Government of Self and Others. Lectures at the Collège de France, 1982–1983, trans. by Graham Burchell (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010)
- Foucault, Michel, Boîtes 50–50bis, Archives Foucault, Bibliothèque nationale de France (NAF 28730)
- Kant, Immanuel, An Answer to the Question: What Is Enlightenment, ed. and trans. by Mary J. Gregor (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 11–22
- Kant, Immanuel, The Conflict of the Faculties, trans. by Mary J. Gregor and Robert Anchor, in Religion and Rational Theology, ed. by Allen W. Wood and George di Giovanni (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 233–327
Cite as:
Arianna Sforzini, ‘Revolution: Making a Break in History’, in Re-: An Errant Glossary, ed. by Christoph F. E. Holzhey and Arnd Wedemeyer, Cultural Inquiry, 15 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2019), pp. 163-69 <https://doi.org/10.25620/ci-15_20>