Friendship As a Way of Life: Foucault, AIDS, and the Politics of Shared Estrangement

217 Pages·2012·3.97 MB·English

by  Tom Roach

LESBIAN / GAY STUDIES
Friendship
Borrowing its title from a 1981 interview of Michel Foucault, Friendship as a Way of Life R
develops the philosopher’s late work on friendship into a novel critique of contemporary O
GLBT political strategy. Tom Roach brings to life Foucault’s scant but suggestive A
writings on friendship (some translated here for the first time), emphasizing their ethical C
as a
implications and advancing a new and politically viable concept—friendship as shared H
estrangement. In exploring the potential of this model for understanding not only social
movements such as ACT UP and the AIDS buddy system, but the literary and artistic
work of Hervé Guibert and David Wojnarowicz as well, Roach seeks to reclaim a politics
of friendship for queer activism. The first book devoted exclusively to Foucault’s work
Way of Life
on the subject, it reassesses Foucaultian queer theory in light of the recent publication of
the philosopher’s final seminars at the Collège de France. Its provocative thesis returns
Foucault’s concept of biopower to its home in sexuality studies and places queer theory
F
front and center in current biopolitical debates.
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i
e
Foucault, AIDS, and the Politics of Shared Estrangement
“Finally a book that makes good on Foucault’s remarks about the radical possibilities n
d
of friendship. By considering in philosophical terms Foucault’s relationship with Hervé
s
Guibert, Tom Roach presents an original and profoundly de-idealized account of h
i
friendship, in which betrayal is necessary rather than contingent. His theory of ‘shared p
estrangement’ makes a vital contribution to a number of hotly contested debates, in queer
a
theory and beyond, concerning intimacy, community, impersonality, and biopolitics. s

Friendship as a Way of Life is such a pleasure to read—so lucid, smart, and compelling— a

that I wish I’d written it myself.” W
— Tim Dean, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, SUNY Buffalo a
y

o
“Tom Roach rightly places friendship at the center of Foucault’s attempts to imagine
f
alternatives to sexual identity and to the disciplinary strategies that would constrain us L
within the confines of sexual identity. Roach masterfully demonstrates how friendship i
f
grounds a potentially new communal politics in a private relation; it allows for a move to e
a radical politics from what Roach speaks of as the impersonal ethic inherent in friendship.
This is an important and original contribution to contemporary cultural studies.”
— Leo Bersani, author of Is the Rectum a Grave? and Other Essays
Tom Roach is Assistant Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies at Bryant University.
T O M R O A C H
State University of New York Press
www.sunypress.edu

Friendship as a Way of Life

Friendship as a Way of Life
Foucault, AIDS, and the
Politics of Shared Estrangement
TOM ROACH
Hervé Guibert, “L’ami,” 1980. B/W photograph. Reproduced with the permission
of Christine Guibert.
David Wojnarowicz, “A Painting to Replace the British Monument in Buenos Aires,”
1984. Acrylic on street poster. Reproduced with the permission of the Estate of
David Wojnarowicz and P.P.O.W., New York.
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2012 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever
without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system
or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic,
magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the
prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production by Kelli W. LeRoux
Marketing by Anne M. Valentine

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Roach, Tom.
Friendship as a way of life : Foucault, AIDS, and the politics of shared
estrangement / Tom Roach.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-4000-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4384-3999-0 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Friendship. 2. Friendship—Philosophy. 3. Gay and lesbian studies.
4. Foucault, Michel, 1926–1984 I. Title.
BF575.F66R587 2012
177.6'2—dc22 2011010771
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Gary

Wonder at the sight of a cornflower, at a rock, at the touch of a rough
hand—all the millions of emotions of which I’m made—they won’t
disappear even though I shall. Other men will experience them,
and they’ll still be there because of them. More and more I believe
I exist in order to be the terrain and proof which show other men
that life consists in the uninterrupted emotions flowing through all
creation. The happiness my hand knows in a boy’s hair will be known
by another hand, is already known. And although I shall die, that
happiness will live on. “I” may die, but what made that “I” possible,
what made possible the joy of being, will make the joy of being live
on without me.
—Jean Genet, Prisoner of Love