Assignment # 7
Diagonal Discourses
Due in my office mailbox (LIB 320) December 18 5 PM
“…But here again, between non-discursive formations of institutions and the discursive formations of statements, there is a great temptation to establish either a sort of vertical parallelism such as might exists between two expressions symbolizing one another (primary relations of expression) or a horizontal causality in which events and institutions would determine the nature of the supposed author of the statement (secondary relations of reflection). At all events, a diagonal movement creates a third possibility: discursive relations become associated with non-discursive milieus, which are not in themselves situated either inside or outside the group of statements but form the above-mentioned limit, the specific horizon without which these objects could neither appear nor be assigned a place in the statement itself.”
Gilles Deleuze, Foucault, trans. Sean Hand (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1988), 9-10.
Write a 10-12 page research paper that analyses a single work or a small group of works that we have addressed in class or one that you have encountered firsthand during the semester (either at a museum or gallery). Your analysis should approach the work(s) by means of a discourse outside of art history or aesthetics. That is to say your thesis should demonstrate how the work(s) engage with and can be best understood through their relationship with another discourse (such as one from science, history, or fiction). While you may of course have recourse to art historical or aesthetic texts as part of your argument – particularly any statements by the artist or critical reception of the work if they exist – the central thesis or major interpretative point should be garnered by juxtaposing the work of art with a ‘diagonal’ discourse. The more specific your outside discourse is, the more focused your analysis will be. Of course, close visual analysis and a clearly-stated thesis are essential aspects of this paper.