Foucault, Douglass, Fanon, and Scotus in Dialogue: On Social Construction and Freedom

229 Pages·2013·1.427 MB·English

by  Cynthia R. Nielsen

Foucault, Douglass, Fanon, and
Scotus in Dialogue
New Approaches to Religion and Power
Series editor: Joerg Rieger
While the relationship of religion and power is a perennial topic, it only
continues to grow in importance and scope in our increasingly global-
ized and diverse world. Religion, on a global scale, has openly joined
power struggles, often in support of the powers that be. But at the same
time, religion has made major contributions to resistance movements. In
this context, current methods in the study of religion and theology have
created a deeper awareness of the issue of power: Critical theory, cultural
studies, postcolonial theory, subaltern studies, feminist theory, critical
race theory, and working class studies are contributing to a new quality
of study in the field. This series is a place for both studies of particular
problems in the relation of religion and power as well as for more general
interpretations of this relation. It undergirds the growing recognition
that religion can no longer be studied without the study of power.
Series editor:
Joerg Rieger is Wendland-Cook Professor of Constructive Theology in
the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University.
Titles:
No Longer the Same: Religious Others and the Liberation of
Christian Theology
D avid R. Brockman
The Subject, Capitalism, and Religion: Horizons of Hope in
Complex Societies
Jung Mo Sung
Imaging Religion in Film: The Politics of Nostalgia
M. Gail Hamner
Spaces of Modern Theology: Geography and Power in
Schleiermacher’s World
Steven R. Jungkeit
Transcending Greedy Money: Interreligious Solidarity for
Just Relations
Ulrich Duchrow and Franz J. Hinkelammert
Foucault, Douglass, Fanon, and Scotus in Dialogue:
On Social Construction and Freedom
C ynthia R. Nielsen
Foucault, Douglass, Fanon, and
Scotus in Dialogue
On Social Construction and
Freedom
Cynthia R. Nielsen
FOUCAULT, DOUGLASS, FANON, AND SCOTUS IN DIALOGUE
Copyright © Cynthia R. Nielsen, 2013.
All rights reserved.
First published in 2013 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN: 978–1–137– 03410– 6
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Nielsen, Cynthia R.
Foucault, Douglass, Fanon, and Scotus in dialogue : on social
construction and freedom / Cynthia R. Nielsen.
p. cm.—(New approaches to religion and power)
Includes bibliograohical references (p. ).
ISBN 978–1–137–03410–6 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Foucault, Michel, 1926–1984. 2. Fanon, Frantz, 1925–1961.
3. Douglass, Frederick, 1818–1895. 4. Duns Scotus, John,
ca. 1266–1308. 5. Liberty. 6. Race. I. Title.
B2430.F724N545 2012
190—dc23 2012034467
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: March 2013
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: Why These Unlikely Dialogue Partners? i x
1 Themes and Their Variations: Harmonizing Humans as
Socially Constructed and Free? 1
2 Foucault and Subjectivities 17
3 Frederick Douglass on Power Relations and Resistance
“From Below” 45
4 F anon on Decolonizing Colonized Subjectivities and the
Quest for an Historically Attuned Symphonic Humanism 73
5 Duns Scotus and Multidimensional Freedom 103
6 Recapitulation: Humans as Socially Constructed and Free,
an Ongoing Improvisation 137
Notes 149
Bibliography 191
Index 203

Acknowledgments
Bringing a book into its final form—or at least into its published
form—is a complex, multistage, communal endeavor. I am
extremely thankful for the support I have received from family
and friends. My husband, Will, and my daughter, Ashley, have shown
not only great patience at every step of the process, but they have con-
stantly reminded me how important it is to laugh, take walks, find
new coffee shops, and—with a nod to my nature-loving daughter—to
wonder over the red-breasted robins, monarch butterflies, and peregrine
falcons. In addition to the fantastic staff at Palgrave Macmillan and my
top-notch editor and respected friend, Joerg Rieger, I owe much to my
fellow philosopher, scholar, and friend, Peter S. Dillard. Thank you,
Peter, for the many hours you have given to this project. Conversation
partners like you are both rare and treasured.

Introduction: W hy These Unlikely
Dialogue Partners?
Character Sketches: Setting the Stage
M ichel Foucault, arguably one of the most influential thinkers of post-
modernity, offers penetrating analyses of how subjectivities are con-
structed through the interplay of discursive practices, institutions,
disciplinary regimes, and biopower. His statements regarding the ubiq-
uity and all-pervasiveness of power relations have been misinterpreted
as both a denial of human agency and a death blow to the subject.
Against this entrenched view, I argue that his understanding of power
relations presupposes free subjects, and, in fact, creates a space for resis-
tance possibilities. That is, for Foucault, a free subject is one whose
relations with others produces a field of possibilities for acting on one’s
own as well as on others’ actions. That field may, of course, become
severely restricted, affording only limited openings for strategic maneu-
verings and self-elaboration. Nonetheless, even in extremely oppressive
situations, an agent retains her freedom as long as she is able in some
way to resist.
Here my dialogue with Frederick Douglass and Frantz Fanon proves
fruitful. Douglass, for example, was forced to live in an inhumane slave
society; yet, he engaged in subversive acts, allowing him to renarrate
his subjectivity. Although Douglass’s freedom was constrained, he was
not rendered completely passive. Through examining Douglass’s and
Fanon’s concrete experiences of oppression, I demonstrate the empiri-
cal validity of Foucault’s theoretical analyses concerning power rela-
tions and subject-(re)formation. More than merely confirm Foucault’s
insights, Douglass and Fanon—speaking from the margins and liminal
spaces of modernity—expand, strengthen, and offer correctives to the
emancipatory dimensions of Foucault’s project.
Unlike Foucault, Douglass and Fanon were forthright concern-
ing their moral evaluations. That is, having lived as socially dead and