From the Archive to the Computer: Michel Foucault and the Digital Humanities
Michel Foucault famously introduced the method of “discourse analysis” in the humanities, especially in historiography. In his _Archaeology of Knowledge_, originally published in 1969, in particular, Foucault argues for making the history of knowledge the object of discourse analyses. In the context...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at McGill University
2023-03-01
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| Series: | Journal of Cultural Analytics |
| Online Access: | https://culturalanalytics.org/article/55795-from-the-archive-to-the-computer-michel-foucault-and-the-digital-humanities |
| _version_ | 1797866346757750784 |
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| author | Henning Schmidgen Bernhard Dotzler Benno Stein |
| author_facet | Henning Schmidgen Bernhard Dotzler Benno Stein |
| author_sort | Henning Schmidgen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Michel Foucault famously introduced the method of “discourse analysis” in the humanities, especially in historiography. In his _Archaeology of Knowledge_, originally published in 1969, in particular, Foucault argues for making the history of knowledge the object of discourse analyses. In the context of the current surge of interest in discourse analysis in the field of computer science, however, there are hardly any references to Foucault, partly because he never defined a methodological process that could be operationalized. Nonetheless we argue for re-reading the _Archaeology of Knowledge_ in the context of computer science and the digital humanities. As a matter of fact, there are considerable affinities between Foucault’s search for the regularities of discourse and current projects dealing with the digitization of texts, their indexing, distributional features, stylometry, etc. We show that these projects were already quite prominent in Foucault’s day, to the point that historian Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie could assert, in 1968, that “the future historian will be a programmer.” A year later, Foucault’s _Archaeology of Knowledge_ actively responded and constructively took up the challenge – which, given the recent advances in machine learning and computational linguistics, strikes us as a crucial move today. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T23:22:40Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-20c931e074ca44699befa0d5dae84521 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2371-4549 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T23:22:40Z |
| publishDate | 2023-03-01 |
| publisher | Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at McGill University |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Cultural Analytics |
| spelling | doaj.art-20c931e074ca44699befa0d5dae845212023-03-21T12:15:23ZengDepartment of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at McGill UniversityJournal of Cultural Analytics2371-45492023-03-01From the Archive to the Computer: Michel Foucault and the Digital HumanitiesHenning SchmidgenBernhard DotzlerBenno SteinMichel Foucault famously introduced the method of “discourse analysis” in the humanities, especially in historiography. In his _Archaeology of Knowledge_, originally published in 1969, in particular, Foucault argues for making the history of knowledge the object of discourse analyses. In the context of the current surge of interest in discourse analysis in the field of computer science, however, there are hardly any references to Foucault, partly because he never defined a methodological process that could be operationalized. Nonetheless we argue for re-reading the _Archaeology of Knowledge_ in the context of computer science and the digital humanities. As a matter of fact, there are considerable affinities between Foucault’s search for the regularities of discourse and current projects dealing with the digitization of texts, their indexing, distributional features, stylometry, etc. We show that these projects were already quite prominent in Foucault’s day, to the point that historian Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie could assert, in 1968, that “the future historian will be a programmer.” A year later, Foucault’s _Archaeology of Knowledge_ actively responded and constructively took up the challenge – which, given the recent advances in machine learning and computational linguistics, strikes us as a crucial move today.https://culturalanalytics.org/article/55795-from-the-archive-to-the-computer-michel-foucault-and-the-digital-humanities |
| spellingShingle | Henning Schmidgen Bernhard Dotzler Benno Stein From the Archive to the Computer: Michel Foucault and the Digital Humanities Journal of Cultural Analytics |
| title | From the Archive to the Computer: Michel Foucault and the Digital Humanities |
| title_full | From the Archive to the Computer: Michel Foucault and the Digital Humanities |
| title_fullStr | From the Archive to the Computer: Michel Foucault and the Digital Humanities |
| title_full_unstemmed | From the Archive to the Computer: Michel Foucault and the Digital Humanities |
| title_short | From the Archive to the Computer: Michel Foucault and the Digital Humanities |
| title_sort | from the archive to the computer michel foucault and the digital humanities |
| url | https://culturalanalytics.org/article/55795-from-the-archive-to-the-computer-michel-foucault-and-the-digital-humanities |
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