The use and abuse of genealogy : genealogical critique from Nietzsche to Said

Naicker, Veeran

The use and abuse of genealogy : genealogical critique from Nietzsche to Said

Master Thesis

2015

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Department of Religious Studies

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Abstract

This thesis traces the use and abuse of genealogy, from Friedrich Nietzsche to Edward Said. After elucidating Nietzsche and Michel Foucault's coherent configuration of the genealogical method in their own philosophical projects, it critically deconstructs and rejects the claim that the post-colonial thinker in Edward Said's book 'Orientalism' is a genealogy in a similar sense to Nietzsche and Foucault. The rejection of Said's texts and Orientalism's status as a genealogical history is premised on a critical analysis of Said's misreading and negation of key Nietzschean and Foucauldian concepts such as power, discourse and the body. Following a rejection of the post-colonial appropriation of genealogy, this thesis concludes by suggesting some revisions for a more coherent deployment of genealogy in post-colonial theory through a closer reading of the relationship between the body and power, with regard to the question of subjectification.

Keywords

Religious Studies

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