Language,Power And Subject

Language,power-discourse and subject are the three core paths to Foucault’s literary thoughts.Foucault was keen on language research in his early years,which constructed the literary language theory and discussed the four dimensions of the birth,essence,action and aesthetics of literature.Literature originated from the self-speaking of language,relying on simulacrum and repetition to constantly approach the essence of itself.The external idea provides the driving force for the literary language’s reentry movement,and the arrogation is the literary action that the language reaches the external world.All of this ultimately provokes the limit experience of madness and death.It can be said that Foucault’s early literary view is the product of the intersection of avant-garde literature and irrational philosophy.It has a strong experimental color and is also immersed in the myth of language while creating unique aesthetics.Since the late 1960 s,Foucault’s research perspective has shifted from language to discourse,and it has been found that the process of controlling the production and dissemination of discourse is power.He criticized the traditional view of power with genealogy,proposed modern power composed of disciplinary power and biopower,and grasped its overall characteristics from five aspects.Then,the power-discourse theory is used to examine the political function of literature.This includes four levels: one is the suppression of literature by the dominion;the second is the context of modern literary creation in non-literary texts;the third is the construction of the external system of literature by modern power;the fourth is the power strategy behind the paradigm shift of literary discourse.Foucault’s power-discourse theory has opened the political turn of literary research,but there are also dilemmas of pan-politicization and aesthetic marginalization.The subject matter runs through Foucault’s thoughts.Foucault was committed to deconstructing the transcendental subject in his early years,and then changed his mind in his thoughts on the author.From the late 1970 s,he has returned to the ancient Greek and Roman society,and found the poetic habitat of subject in the ethics of self-concern of the ancients.He advocated that individuals live like artists and build their own aesthetics of existence.He hoped that in the practice of literary reading and writing,people’s spirit and body could be recreated and a perfect ethical-aesthetic subject could be constructed.In his later years,Foucault’s ethicschanged his previous image of radical deconstructionist,showing his constructive aspect of caring for the soul,spirit and body.In the post-industrial era,it highlighted the significance of caring for reality and had universal value.