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But within these disciplines, there is a split between those who by-pass
political and social realities and those who address them. With the
exception of Althusser, whose struc turalism has a very special cast, one
is reminded of Marx 's dictum that the end of philosophy is the
beginning of history. Even when addressing political questions , as
Foucault does increasingly, structuralists are more concerned with the
language of politics, with its text, or even its intertextuality, than they
are with concrete political issues. This is true, also, for Kristeva and
Sollers, whose fleeting Maoism in the la te 1960s had little to do with
the rest of their thinking, and who flirt with politics rather than get
involved. But whereas political posturing has its place among French
intellectuals , including literary critics, when structuralism is trans–
posed into our American academic settings, the postures lose their
original meaning and become intrinsic to the theories. On the other
hand, parts of the theories are taken out of context, when they
immigrate to this country. In sociology, Foucault's
The Birth of the
Clinic,
for instance, is adapted by medical sociologists, his
Discipline
and Punish
by criminologists, and
The History of Sexuality
by experts
on gender roles-uses which distort Foucault 's general intent.
In my opinion, structuralism caught on because a few extraordi–
nary individuals-Foucault, Barthes, and Lacan-pic:ked up
Lhi–
Strauss's idea of applying Saussure's and Jakobson's linguistics to
social facts . They evolved systems by which oppositions, transforma–
tions, and relationships that paralleled linguistic categories and/ or
replaced them; were to explain previously unexplained phenomena–
codes of knowledge, " readerly texts," and unconscious language.
Foucault, for instance, found new connections between writers such as
Cervantes, Flaubert, or Erasmus, p ainters such as Velazquez or Coya,
and uncovered the political and social changes brought on by new
methods of production and notions of individual freedom . And histori–
cal epochs, according to Foucault, were dominated by specific codes of
knowledge, codes that were linked to the emerging dominating powers.
Many of Barthes's ideas were taken from, or addressed to, Foucault,
although Foucault was equally inspired by Barthes. The notion of
regard, or glance, so important in
The Purloined Letter,
and in
Sarrasine,
which deals with who perceives what, and when, was
originally elaborated in
The Birth of the Clinic.
The glance was the
new diagnostic tool of physicians who, as their scientific knowledge
developed, began to take in everything about a pa tient, hi s phys iog–
nomy, the presenting symptoms of his illness, his social situation,
family history, etc. Lacan, of course, uses this glance to make connec-
