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Reading Foucault in Tehran

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Abstract

The chapter lays out the theoretical framework of the book, which is mostly inspired by Michel Foucault’s work. It discusses how the author engaged with Foucault during and after his fieldwork. Foucauldian concepts, such as panopticon, docile bodies, biopower, and heterotopia, as well as his notion of bodies as a site of power and resistance, are discussed and connected to the data. Spatial dimensions of same-sex desires and the discursive formation of sexualities are explicated. Foucault’s writing about the technologies of the self, the ethics of being, and confessions are then introduced and discussed.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The Islamic Republican party was established in mid-1979 to support Khomeini and the formation of theocracy in Iran. It was disbanded in 1987 (see Axworthy 2013).

  2. 2.

    Said drew on Foucault’s (2002) Archaeology of Knowledge in his discussion/arguments regarding the “exteriorly of representation.” Foucault termed the boundaries between the “excavator” (the observer or the researcher) and subject “exteriority.” This means that the knowledge about the subject or discourse is produced and made known by someone who is outside that discourse, someone who because of his or her position cannot wholly identify with those who are the subjects of that discourse.

  3. 3.

    According to Amnesty International, Iran is ranked as second, after China, in terms of number of executions in 2016. This indicates that the “sovereign power” in Foucauldian sense, take life instead of foster it, is still exercised quite aggressively in Iran (see Amnesty International 2017, April 11).

  4. 4.

    Butler refers to this as the conditional agency of the subject (see Butler 2005).

  5. 5.

    Transmogrify means to change or alter greatly, and often with grotesque or humorous effect. Nietzsche and Foucault use this verb to stress the transgressive aspect of change (Foucault 1984b). According to Butler (1990) this would mean to extend the limits of the norms or what is culturally intelligible, for example, through resignification or other means.

  6. 6.

    In fact the confession chambers in Catholicism resembles the closet and the effects of salvation coming out of those chambers after having confessed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland

    Jón Ingvar Kjaran

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  1. Jón Ingvar Kjaran
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Kjaran, J.I. (2019). Reading Foucault in Tehran. In: Gay Life Stories. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12831-9_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12831-9_2

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-12830-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-12831-9

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