Cordelia's 'AIDS discourse project'
inspired by
"Michel Foucault: Remarks On Marx"
Conversations with Duccio Trombadori
translated by R. James Goldstein and James Cascaito
ISBN 0-936756-33-0
UVic call number: B2430 F722T713 1991
6 Dec 2003
At this moment, I am working on a Foucaultian analysis of AIDS discourse in Japan. At the beginning of this project, it is Foucault's death that intrigued me. I wondered how Foucault would respond to the discourse that is created around AIDS, and how he would problematize this discourse, and what would be his preferred solution to combat AIDS.
p. 162-163
In this interview, Trombadori askes Foucault to comment on a specific case that draws on the relationship between medicine and justice, and law and knowledge. Foucault responded by recounting an 'analogous' case in France, and narrated his response when the killer's lawyer asked Foucault to take up a position and intervene in the press.
Foucault refused, arguing that he refuse to take up a political role. His role is to problematize - to make problems evident in all complexity - by provoking doubts and uncertainties and calling for profound changes.
So perhaps, even if Foucault were alive at this time, he would not take a side in this controversial topic. This is what motivates me to do what Foucault did - to problematize AIDS discourse, and to make the problems clear in no uncertainty.