Foucault’s museum: difference, representation, and genealogy

Abstract

Foucault’s work has been used to promote a negative view of the museum as an Enlightenment institution that embodies state power and strives to order the world according to universal rules and the concept of a total history. This article argues that an analysis of Foucault’s work actually leads to a view of the museum that is positive and progressive for dismantling the very notions of historical continuity and coherence that Foucault rejects. This gives the museum a unique status for Foucault, as an institution that has its origins in the Enlightenment values or ‘capabilities’ that enable us to overcome the relations of power that are based on those Enlightenment values. The museum exemplifies the tension in Foucault’s position on the Enlightenment: that we must rely on Enlightenment values of critique, freedom and progress in order to reject the Enlightenment relations of power that have been based on these values. The first part of the paper suggests a Foucaultian definition of the museum as a space of difference and space of representation. The second part argues that on the basis of this definition, the museum has the potential to enact Foucault’s genealogy, and to contribute to progress.