Discourse

Agency belongs neither to a sovereign self nor to history's momentum; Foucault relocates it largely in language, in discourse, which becomes a key word.

Put simply Foucault: what makes things happen is neither a ruling self nor the forward push of history. It lies largely in language, in "discourse": the organized ways a society talks about things.

No statement is neutral or free-standing; each sits within a series, leans on other statements while setting itself apart from them, and means what it means through that network.

Put simply Foucault: no statement stands alone or neutral. Each belongs to a series, leans on other statements while marking itself off from them, and gets its meaning from that web.

Foucault's post-structuralist turn: a structure of statements is never sealed, references keep running past its edges, so even a book lacks clear-cut frontiers.

Put simply Foucault moves past structuralism here: a web of statements is never closed. References always run past its edges, so even a book has no clear boundary.

Foucault rejects one approach above all, the phenomenological, which gives the observing subject absolute priority and ends in a transcendental consciousness; scientific discourse should be analyzed as discursive practice.

Put simply Foucault rejects above all the phenomenological approach, which gives the observing mind absolute priority and ends in a "transcendental consciousness". The history of scientific discourse should instead be analyzed as "discursive practice": how people speak and write.

The repressive hypothesis is a myth: the question is not why we are so repressed about sex but why we keep insisting, obsessively, that we are.

Put simply Foucault calls it a myth that modern society silenced sex. The real question is not why we are so repressed, but why we keep insisting, obsessively, that we are.

The historian is an archaeologist digging in words and sources rather than earth; archaeology seeks no secret of origins, only "the systematic description of a discourse object."

Put simply Foucault: the historian is an archaeologist who digs in words and documents instead of soil. The aim is not the secret of origins, only a systematic description of how something was talked about.

Shore's example of a Foucauldian discontinuity: the moment Czech and Slovak Marxist believers begin setting Stalinist words against others, class consciousness against individual conscience, the people against persons.

Put simply Shore's example of a Foucauldian break: the moment Czech and Slovak communist believers began setting Stalinist words against others, such as personal conscience against class consciousness, and individual persons against "the people."

Magnetic Mountain reverses the usual order: rather than a subject producing discourse, Stalinist discourse produced the Stalinist subject.

Put simply Kotkin's Magnetic Mountain reverses the usual order: rather than people producing Stalinist discourse, Stalinist discourse produced the Stalinist person.