푸코와 (탈)식민주의: 공간·지식·역사

초록

Most scholars agree that colonialism occupies a marginal, if not insignificant, position in Michel Foucault’s work. They point out that Foucault fell short of criticizing European imperialism by ignoring/underestimating the lasting effect of colonial discourse. This article aims to reappraise Foucault’s discourse on colonialism and its relations with racism by carefully re-examining his key concepts such as bio-power/bio-politics, subjugated knowledge, geopolitics of knowledge, and the struggle between global/total theory and local/minor theory. Primarily based on his oral interviews and public lectures given at college de France, the author strives to “use”, appropriate, and/or “extend” Foucault’s vague, imperfect, and fragmentary comments and discussions of colonial problems for exploring the possibility of writing a ‘counter history’, which is free from Eurocentric prejudices and at the same time overcomes the coloniality of ‘traditional’ world history. In short, the article intends to “exploit” Foucault’s intellectual legacy for the purpose of coping with the on-going post-colonial challenges—in particular, the persistence of colonial hegemony and “colonialism at heart” in the age of Globalization.

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