Prophets in exile : a diagnosis of Michel Foucault's political intellectual

I investigate the question of the political role of the intellectual, considering the political and ethical impact of the scholarly work of intellectuals. I concentrate on the subtle ways in which such intellectual work can contribute to (or hinder) efforts to encourage others to think for themseves and thereby manage effective resistance to oppressive practices of power. My focus in this investigation rests on the work of Michel Foucault, who in his own work plays an intellectual role that I label, after Edward Said, the role of an "exile." Within such a role one attempts to resist particular practices of power without escaping them entirely; one distances oneself from what is being resisted, while still retaining crucial ties to it. In encouraging others to engage in resistance to power through a movement of exile, Foucault himself attempts to take up an exile position in relation to his own use of power as an intellectual, working to transform it from within. I argue that this role of the intellectual as exile is an intriguing and fruitful one for ethically and politically concerned intellectuals to consider, and that a number of criticisms brought against Foucault's work by commentators can be resolved by considering them within the context of his role as an intellectual exile