This module is not currently running in 2021 to 2022.
'The truth will set you free' is a maxim that is central to both theories and practices of resistance. It is a claim that has, nonetheless, come under fire from a wide array of critical perspectives not the least of which are those of the poststructuralist and post-foundational political philosophies that have emerged during the second half of the twentieth century and that continue to inspire admiration and condemnation in almost equal measure. In this module, ‘poststructuralist’ will refer to a body of work produced primarily in France since the 1960s that seeks to develop the structuralist critique of humanism in ways that recognise the contingent nature of meaning generating structures and thereby challenge what we mean by truth and its relation to political practice and thought. The main representatives of this perspective in this module will be Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze. By ‘post-foundational’ is meant a body of work that critically questions poststructuralist approaches to contingency while reinvigorating the concept of truth as a political force. The primary representative of this approach is Alain Badiou. Despite their differences, both perspectives rest upon an event-oriented ontology – the view that events are ontologically primary – but they have conceived of this in competing ways. A main theme of the module will be how to understand the relationship between truth and politics as an event.
Total contact hours: 22
Private study hours: 178
Total study hours: 200
Available as an optional module for MA programmes in Politics and International Relations
Critical review, 1500 words, 20%
Essay, 4000 words, 80%
Reassessment methods: 100% coursework
Reading list (Indicative list, current at time of publication. Reading lists will be published annually)
Foucault, M. and Chomsky, N. 'Human Nature: Justice vs. Power. A Debate Between Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault', The Chomsky-Foucault Debate: On Human Nature, London: The New Press, 2006.
Foucault, M. 'Truth and Power', Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972-1977, London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1980.
Foucault, M. 'Subjectivity and Truth', The Politics of Truth, New York: Semiotext(e), 2007.
Foucault, M. and Deleuze, G. 'Intellectuals and Power', in Foucault, Language, Counter-Memory, Practice, New York: Cornell University Press, 1980.
Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F. 'Introduction: Rhizome', A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, vol. 2, London: Continuum, 1988.
Deleuze, G. 'The Image of Thought', Difference and Repetition, New York: Columbia University Press, 1995.
Badiou, . A. 'Philosophy and Politics', Radical Philosophy, vol. 96, 1999.
Badiou, A. 'Politics as a Truth Procedure', Metapolitics, London: Verso, 2005.
Badiou, A. 'Bodies, Languages, Truths', Logics of Worlds, London: Continuum, 2009.
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
The intended subject specific learning outcomes. On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
1. Critically reflect upon the relationship between truth and theories of resistance
2. Articulate the theoretical and conceptual claims within major poststructuralist and post-foundational perspectives on truth and resistance
3. Analyse the relationship between truth and resistance in light of poststructuralist and post-foundational accounts of the political
4. Critically explore the competing event-oriented ontologies that ground poststructuralist and post-foundational accounts of the political
5. Conceive and execute a theoretically well informed and clearly articulated assessment of the relationship between truth and the politics of resistance
The intended generic learning outcomes. On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
1. Think critically about social and political ideas, actors and institutions
2. Critically assess contemporary academic debates about different theoretical perspectives
3. Be prepared to conduct theoretical research on the interaction between theory and practice in political philosophy
4. Be prepared to communicate individually and in groups the results of this research both in speech and in writing
5. Understand the problematic character of critical inquiry in political theory
6. Relate the academic study of social and political theory to questions of public concern
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