Historicism and Subjectiv(iz)ation: from Foucault to Rancière and backwards

Abstract

The article makes an attempt to trace the link between, on the one hand, historicism in the approach,
and, on the other, its capacity to theorize a «positive» aspect of subjectiv(iz)ation, conceived as
resistant in contrast with subjection. With this object in mind, we refer to two authors concerned
with both topics, who are rather close to each other but at the same time sufficiently independent
to be able to assure a variability of approaches to these topics – to Michel Foucault and to Jacques
Rancière. Given that each of them provide us with different kinds of reflection on these topics on
the different stages of their œuvre, as a result, we obtain three sharp transitions: from the politics of
Foucault to the politics of Rancière, from the politics of Rancière to his aestetics, from the aesthetics
of Rancière to the aesthetics of Foucault. The contrast between them rather persuasively demonstrates
the existence of a negative correlation between the historicism and the topic of subjectiv(iz)ationsas-resistance, even in the works of such authors as Foucault and Rancière.