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The Primacy of Resistance: Anarchism, Foucault, and the Art of Not Being Governed

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Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 11-4-2016 12:00 AM The Primacy of Resistance: Anarchism, Foucault, and the Art of Not Being Governed Derek C. Barnett The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Mark Franke The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Theory and Criticism A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Derek C. Barnett 2016 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Continental Philosophy Commons, and the Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Barnett, Derek C., "The Primacy of Resistance: Anarchism, Foucault, and the Art of Not Being Governed" (2016). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 4265. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/4265 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. i Abstract Beginning with a critical inquiry into the reasons why the field of the political is traditionally elaborated in the archic nexus between government and state sovereignty, this study examines the possibilities of elaborating an alternative theory of the political in the intersections between Michel Foucault’s theory of resistance and anarchist political theory. Taking Foucault’s fifth thesis on power from The History of Sexuality as an alternative paradigm from which to reread the history of the political, the aim of this study is to demonstrate that the hallmark of Foucault’s work emerges in the ways in which his analytic of power strategically shifts the site of politics away from its traditional locus in the exercise of government to the question of resistance. Under what I will elaborate in terms of the primacy of resistance, I argue that Foucault’s studies of power and governmentality reveal an anarchist hypothesis of the political in the critical caesura between the political as archē and the political as agōn. Affirming a mutual alliance between anarchist theory and Foucault against the orthodox foundations of political philosophy not only exposes the conceptual principles that continue to sustain Western political practices, but also opens up the space to pursue the implications of a form of politics inseparable from the elaboration of permanent ethics of revolt, a distinct way of being in the world through resistance—that is, a specific art of not being governed. When the concepts of power and government are understood to emerge on condition of resistance, the political conceived as archē reveals its own contingency, and the question of politics is redirected from a constituent theory of an oikonomia to a destituent theory of resistance, a critical ethos of becoming ungovernable, not as a revolutionary overthrow of power, but as an art of not being governed. Rather than reducing Foucault to anarchism, however, it is my contention that the intersection between them emerges in the critical attempts to locate a form of politics which, in refusing to reconstitute itself as power, could never assume the form of an archē. ii Keywords Foucault, Michel; Anarchism; Anarchist Studies; Post-Anarchism; Resistance Studies; Post-Structuralism; Political Philosophy iii Acknowledgements This project would not have been possible without the guidance, support, and time provided by my supervisor Dr. Mark Franke. Dr. Franke’s patience and careful reading of the early drafts of this work have had an immense impact on my own thought, and his invaluable role in the completion of this project exemplifies an ethos of mutual aid. A special gratitude is also to be extended to my colleagues and professors of the Centre for Theory and Criticism at the University of Western Ontario for cultivating a richly intellectual environment from which a project like this could flourish. I am eternally indebted to my mother, father, and two brothers whose love and kindness have continuously supported me throughout my endeavors. Far too many people have given me invaluable support and encouragement while I worked on this project. Although I cannot list them all, I am forever grateful to all of my friends, many of whom were the very inspiration behind the arguments developed throughout this project. Among them, I need to especially recognize Alex Hunter and Leah Ortiz whose genuine kindness is without end, Kayla Cerone and Heather Abraham for their continuous encouragement, Abby Paulos and Jeremy Arnott for offering their care in a time of need, and the Milwaukee punk community for refusing to be governed. iv Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................ i Keywords ............................................................................................................................ ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... iv Introduction ..........................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1 ............................................................................................................................48 1 On The Crisis of the Political: Government, Sovereignty, and the Paradigm of the Archē……………………………………………………………………………………..45 1.2 The Aristotelian Paradigm of the Archē: Politics as an Exercise of Government. .55 1.3 The Schmittian Paradigm: Sovereignty as a Political Paradigm of Government ...73 1.4 Critical Turns Toward Anarchism ..........................................................................85 1.5 Postanarchism .........................................................................................................91 1.5 Meta-politics ...........................................................................................................99 1.6 Toward a Critical Theory of Anarchism ...............................................................108 Chapter 2 ..........................................................................................................................112 2 Anarchy and Anarchism: Rethinking the Political at the Horizon of the State and the Exercise of Government ..................................................................................................112 2.1 Drawing the Line Once Again: Anarchism and Marxism on the Concept of Struggle ............................................................................................................................117 2.2 Defining Anarchism ..............................................................................................127 2.3 Anarchy as a Philosophical Principle ...................................................................135 2.4 Anarchy as a Historical Principle of Intelligibility of the Political ......................143 2.6 Anarchy as a Historical Paradigm of Resistance ..................................................156 2.7 Towards an Anarchist Hypothesis of the Political ................................................170 Chapter 3 ..........................................................................................................................174 3 An Anarchist Hypothesis of the Political: Foucault, Critique and the Art of Not Being Governed ...............................................................................................................174 3.1 Anarchaeology: Foucault’s Critical Anarchist Methodology ...............................183 3.2 Essays in Refusal: Critique and the Struggle Against Authority ..........................193 3.3 Critique and the Art of Not Being Governed ........................................................211 3.4 Towards a Theory of the Primacy of Resistance ..................................................233 v Chapter 4 ..........................................................................................................................238 4 The Primacy of Resistance .......................................................................................238 4.1 Critical Reception of Foucauldian Resistance ......................................................242 4.2 The Analytic of Power and the Turn toward the Study of Resistance ..................250 4.3 On the Primacy of Resistance ...............................................................................268 4.4 From Power to Politics..........................................................................................297 Chapter 5 ..........................................................................................................................304 5 From Archē to Agōn .................................................................................................304 5.1 Critical Reception of Society Must Be Defended and the War Model of the Political ............................................................................................................................311 5.2 Genealogy as an Analytic of Historical Struggle and Discourses of Resistance ..317 5.3 Politics as the Continuation of War ......................................................................323 5.4 Against
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