Postmodern Textual Interpretation: Foucault and Derrida

Author: Lu Yang / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2000-12-01
Features: [Excerpt:] III. The Birth of the History of Madness
Foucault left France in 1955 and traveled through Europe. In the summer of 1960, when he returned to his homeland, he carried with him the manuscript of Madness and Unreason: A History of Madness in the Classical Age. The original included appendices and a bibliography, spanning 673 pages. The final note indicated the completion date and location as February 5, 1960, in Hamburg. Madness and Unreason was Foucault's main thesis for his doctoral degree. According to the regulations at the time, applying for a national doctorate required submitting two theses. Foucault's secondary thesis was a French translation of Kant's Anthropology, accompanied by annotations and a lengthy preface spanning over a hundred pages. This can be compared to Derrida's translation of Husserl's The Origin of Geometry, which he published after teaching at the University of Paris for two years in 1962. The translation also included a long preface and was even longer than the original pamphlet. Derrida had been working on his doctoral thesis titled The Ideal of the Literary Object since 1957, but he did not complete it. In the early 1950s, Foucault taught psychology at the école Normale Supérieure in Paris, where Derrida was among his students. Derrida later said that, like many others, he admired Foucault's eloquence, his skill in debate, authority, and wisdom, which left a deep impression on him.
The two theses were supervised by Foucault first seeking out the renowned Hegel scholar, Jean Hyppolite, who was then the rector of the école Normale Supérieure. Hyppolite, familiar with German philosophy, accepted Foucault's secondary thesis, while Foucault's massive work, a monumental study of the history of madness across centuries, which deviated greatly from conventional philosophical essays, was recommended to Georges Canguilhem, who was teaching the history of science at the Sorbonne at the time. These two seasoned philosophers, whom Foucault had previously studied under, accepted Foucault as their student. It is said that initially, Canguilhem was rather dismissive when he heard Foucault briefly introduce the thesis during a lecture, but once he read it, he was deeply moved and convinced he was facing a work of the highest caliber. He raised some questions about the manuscript's passionate literary style, hoping Foucault would revise or remove some of the more assertive statements. However, Foucault ultimately refused to make changes. The thesis was approved for submission.
The next step was to find a publisher for it. Foucault had in mind Gallimard, the publisher where many renowned authors, especially Sartre and Merleau-Ponty, had published their works. However, this publisher, which later became the home for Madness and Unreason (both the 1972 and 1976 editions) and nearly all of Foucault's major works, initially rejected the obscure author. The publisher said they did not publish theses. During this time, the manuscript came into the hands of the writer Maurice Blanchot, who had been rereading Derrida's works. Although Blanchot did not have the patience to read the entire manuscript, even the parts he did read excited him immensely. However, it was clear that Blanchot's approval did not help matters. Foucault declined the offer from the Presses Universitaires de France to include Madness and Unreason in their series and instead turned to Plon. The Presses Universitaires de France had published Foucault's The Birth of the Clinic in 1963, but for a work of such profound influence on his academic trajectory, Foucault was unwilling to let it be in pure academia. Plon, like Lévi-Strauss, had turned to after being rejected by Gallimard, where in 1955 he published Tristes Tropiques and in 1958 Structural Anthropology. Through Plon, Lévi-Strauss had bridged the gap between academia and society.
After sending the manuscript to Plon, it went unanswered for months. Foucault went to inquire, and only then was the manuscript found in a drawer, revealing it to be a historical work. But eventually, someone with discernment recognized its value. After much persuasion, the manuscript was accepted. In May 1961, Foucault's two doctoral theses were defended, and Madness and Unreason won the annual prize for the best philosophical thesis.
Foucault's "classical age" referred to the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, the very era of reason. Foucault argued that what is termed "reason" in Western capitalist civilization was established by brutally suppressing and excluding madness and irrationality. This topic can be traced back to the Middle Ages. Leprosy was widespread in Europe during the Middle Ages. According to Foucault's research, in the 12th century alone, there were 220 leper hospitals in England and Scotland. As a result, medieval society feared lepers and took numerous measures to isolate them from daily life. Yet even within their own spaces, lepers received excellent care. Leprosy was the "other" of medieval society, a terrifying source of contagion, but because medieval people adopted a respectful and fearful attitude toward it, the two coexisted in relative peace. By the Renaissance, Foucault observed that leprosy had almost miraculously disappeared. There is no doubt that this was not due to medical progress but rather the natural result of isolation measures. The inexplicable attitude of fear and avoidance was also abandoned. Although leprosy had vanished, its organizational structure—the leper hospitals—had not entirely disappeared, though many had been closed.
Foucault noted the astonishing similarities in history: the model of isolation reappeared, this time with vagrants, criminals, and the mading lepers, all excluded from daily society. While the meaning and cultural connotations were entirely different, the form remained the same. However, even then, the Renaissance's attitude toward madness still retained a romantic hue. The mad seemed to live a carefree wandering life. They were expelled from cities and roamed the countryside or were shipped off on "fool ships" to distant lands. They represented a dizzying irrationality, mocking human weakness and helplessness. Over time, madness became a symbol, an image that fascinated people, as seen in folk tales and theatrical characters: the mad often spoke wittily, revealing truths in unexpected ways. A famous example is Erasmus's In Praise of Folly, where "Folly" is a beautiful woman who speaks eloquently and openly, revealing truths that are both shocking and undeniable.
Foucault pointed out that Erasmus observed madness from afar, safe from danger, as if from Mount Olympus, singing its praises. He could mock madness with laughter that even the gods could not restrain. Foucault also found that in Shakespeare and Cervantes' works, madness still held a crucial position due to its unparalleled power to move. However, from the late 15th century onward, the theme of death became fashionable in humanist thought, almost universally overshadowing human existence and fate. Madness gradually became the living symbol of death. Once marginalized and seemingly insignificant, madness now entered daily life with the same clarity as death, which had once seemed distant and elusive but now stood starkly before the world. Since madness had no power to return to truth or reason, it could only be a walking symbol of death. As a doctor described Lady Macbeth's madness, it was a disease beyond his healing, already a complete death. Ophelia died by suicide in a state of madness, believing she had found happiness and joy again. Don Quixote died peacefully, his death ultimately returning to reason and truth. But at the very moment of his death, the mad knight suddenly became aware of his own existence, tears inexplicably welling up in his eyes. Perhaps this was because Don Quixote realized how foolish he had been before, but such wisdom could not be anything other than a new form of madness. Only death could solve the problem. But even death could not conquer madness—the very madness that gave Don Quixote immortality. His spirit was not buried with his body, for it spoke the truth of human existence. This truth lies in the reminder that madness highlights humanity's position in the vast universe.
By the late 17th century, madness was like a cry from the wilderness, lamenting the suffering of another world, the morality of humanity, and also the cry of the end of the world. It exposed human flaws, vulnerability, and helplessness in the face of death. At this point, Foucault believed that the world could easily accept madness. It was present, in objects and in the hearts of people. It was an inverted sign, indicating how truth and fantasy had become disoriented.
However, starting from the 17th century in the classical period, Foucault noted, madness was suppressed into silence through a policy of mass confinement. The decree of 1856 in Paris to establish "general hospitals" was a landmark event. Because within a few years, one in every 100 Parisians was imprisoned within their walls for months. The general hospitals were not medical institutions but rather administrative bodies with semi-judicial powers. They were equipped with stakes, shackles, prisons, and dungeons, in quantities sufficient to meet needs.