Page 31 - Cultural Studies Dictionary

DICTIONARY OF CULTURAL STUDIES

concepts that delimits a specific ‘regime of truth ‘(that is, what counts as truth) and
Foucault attempts to identify the historical conditions and determining rules of
their formation.
8 Archaeology suggests excavation of the past in one specific site and entails
‘digging up’ the local sites of discursive practice. Foucault argues that archaeology
is the appropriate method for the analysis of local discursivities; it is not
transcendental and does not seek to identify the universal structures of all
knowledge or all possible moral action, but treats the instances of discourse as
historical events.
Foucault argues that his archaeological methods demonstrate that discourse is
discontinuous in the transition from one historical era to another. That is, the social
world is marked by different epistemes, or configurations of knowledge, so that it
is no longer perceived, described, classified and known in the same way but rather
is marked by historical breaks in understanding. Foucault’s stress on discontinuity
constitutes a questioning of the modern themes of genesis, teleology, continuity,
totality and unified subjects. The tracing of the discontinuities of history is the
domain of his other favoured methodology–genealogy.
Links Discourse, episteme, genealogy, power/knowledge, poststructuralism, truth

Articulation The concept of articulation has been used to theorize the relationships
between discursive elements and/or components of a social formation. The notion
of articulation is premised on the argument put by Laclau that there are no necessary
links between discursive concepts or between the ‘levels’ of a social formation and
that those which are forged are of a temporary nature, being articulated and bound
together by custom and convention. Here, according to Hall, the concept of
articulation suggests a temporary unity of discursive elements that do not have to
‘go together’ so that an articulation is the form of connection that can make a unity
of two different elements under certain conditions. Articulation suggests
expressing/representing as well as a joining together.
For example, the apparent ‘unity’ of identity can be understood as the
articulation of different and distinct elements that, under other historical and
cultural circumstances, could be re-articulated in different ways. Here individuals are
understood to be the unique historically specific articulation of discursive
components that are contingent but also socially determined or regulated. Since
there is no automatic connection between the various discourses of identity, class,
gender, race, age etc. they can be articulated together in different ways. Thus, all
middle class white men do not necessarily share the same identity and
identifications any more than all working class black women do. Further, ideas
about ethnic purity may be articulated with nationality within nationalist discourse
and gendered metaphors play a significant part in the construction of the nation,
for example, the fatherland, mother of the nation etc.
The concept of articulation enables apparently unifying concepts such as
‘society’ or ‘nation’ to be considered as the unique historically specific temporary
stabilization of relations and meanings. For example, national identity can be