In this article, we attempt to critically appraise the receptions of Michel Foucault’s works in Korea since 1990s. He has been one of the most influential philosophers in Korea: nearly all of his published works have been translated, and widely stud...
In this article, we attempt to critically appraise the receptions of Michel Foucault’s works in Korea since 1990s. He has been one of the most influential philosophers in Korea: nearly all of his published works have been translated, and widely studied and discussed in social and human sciences. Until now three features of his theory have attracted considerable attentions. First, he is thought to be a symbolic figure of ‘Post ’ discourses which has become a new radical theory replacing Marxism. For this is the second feature his genealogy of disciplinary power made possible analyzing the domination in its concrete and diversified phenomena which could not have been explained by Marxist economic determinism. Third, many philosophers have been interested in his later genealogy of ethics, in particular his aesthetics of existence. A series of College de France lectures recently translated will serve as a next catalyst for a new studies, especially a Foucauldian studies for the neo-liberal way of subjection and a new mode of subjectivation that could resist neo-liberalism. We may suggest, therefore, that a transition from the studies on Foucault to the Foucauldian studies should be required for a more fruitful receptions of Foucault in Korea.