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Today’sTransvaluedHumanismafterAnti-Humanism
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Foucault’smostcelebratedvisualtableaux,hisdescriptionofVelázquez’sLas
Meninas,andendswithanolessfrequentlycitedvisualmetaphorofMan’s
faceetchedinthesandandbeingerasedbythewavesattheedgeofthesea.”
53
Foucault’squeryingofhumanismisamplifiedinpostmodernism:thesubject
andthehumanistcanonarecalledintoquestion,whilealternativecodesare
researchedandculturalconstructsexamined,withhumanismconsideredto
beonesuchconstruct.Atthesametimethereisanappreciableessentialist
returntothecanonofthehumanities,wherethehumansciencesaretobe
foundedonaxiology.BetweenthesepolaroppositesIdiscernaHthirdway”
ofopeningupandrenewing-butstillsustaining-humanism.Tisthird
wayismappedoutbythethoughtofMariaJanion,JuliaKristeva,MarthaC.
NussbaumandHaroldBloom,whoseconceptsofhumanismaregrounded
inthephilosophyofthesubject,anattachmenttohumankindandhumanity,
andstudiahumaniora,studiesoftheclassicalheritage;thepoint,afterall,is
therenewalofthehumanisttradition.
MariaJanion,JuliaKristeva,MarthaC.NussbaumandHaroldBloom
recognizethefinitudeofanti-humanism,atermLucFerryandAlainRe-
nautappliedtodescribethephilosophyof’68(Lapensée68.Essaisurl)anti-
humanismecontemporain54).MichelFoucaultwasjoinedinhissubject-less
philosophybyRolandBarthes,JacquesLacanandJacquesDerrida.Roland
Barthes’s1968essayborethetitleDeathoftheAuthor,findingthesubjectof
languageandliteratureempty.55Inhisownversionofpsychoanalysis,with
itsapogeeinlate1960s,JacquesLacanproblematizedandsplitthenotion
ofsubject.TesepoststructuraliststakeupanddeveloptheNietzschean
suspicionthatSubjektistjanureineFiktionandreducetoabsurdityHei-
degger’swarningagainstsubjectivitytakingoverphilosophy.Similarly,the
philosophyofJacquesDerridaseekstounmaskidentity-basedthinking,but
itdoessowithadoseofintellectualfnesse.Hisdirancedilersanddefers
inlesfnsdel)homme.56
53
MartinJay,DowncastEyes.TeDenigrationofVisioninTwentieth-CenturyFrenchTought
(Berkeley,LosAngeles,London:UniversityofCaliforniaPress,1994),402.
54
LucFerry,AlainRenaut,Lapensée68.Essaisurl)antihumanismecontemporain(Paris:Gallimard,
1985).
55
RolandBarthes,HLamortdel’Auteur”,inLeBruissementdelalangue(Paris:Seuil,1984),61-67.
56
JacquesDerrida,HStructure,SignandPlayintheDiscourseoftheHumanSciences”,[in]Te
StructuralistControversy,eds.R.MackseyandE.Donato(Baltimore:HopkinsUniversity
Press,1972),264-265.