J. Afary, K. Anderson, Foucault and the Iranian revolution in context

Babak Elahi

pp. 157-166

in: Human Studies 30 (2), 2007.

Abstract

In Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of Islamism, Janet Afary and Kevin B. Anderson argue that Michel Foucault’s response to the Iranian Revolution was pivotal in the development of his later work. Central to this argument is the comparison Afary and Anderson make between Foucault’s and Iranian Shi’ite Islamists’ anti-modernism. In the late seventies, Foucault was already turning to pre-modern cultures as offering a way out of post-Enlightenment technologies of power and modern disciplinary institutions. Within this frame of mind, Foucault saw Iranian revolutionary practices of self-sacrifice, public penitence, and small-group agency as exemplary forms of resistance to the dead weight of modernity. Unfortunately, Foucault’s enthusiasm for Islamist anti-modernism made him insensitive to some of the more nativistic (even fascistic) and anti-feminist aspects of Iranian revolutionary ideology. In Foucault’s late work (volumes 2 and 3 of The History...

Cited authors

Foucault Michel