Abstract

critical impasse-an impasse that I will claim results from a problem of reading. While commentators from a wide variety of disciplines continue to find selected elements of his work useful, Foucault's apparent dismissal of the concept of has proven to be a common and recurring source of frustration. As a result of this alleged dismissal of resistance or, at least, his seeming disinterest in the category, many thinkers find that his work lacks the necessary ingredients for progressive social thought. Thus, the problem of resistance continues to function as an impasse between Foucault (or, more generally, certain currents of post-structuralism) and much critical thought-even leading some to label Foucault's politics as self-indulgent radical chic (Rorty 47). The prevalence of this impasse is evidenced by the frequency with which scholars who write about Foucault return to one of several variations on a basic theme: that Foucault's depiction of the social world renders resistance both conceptually and practically impossible (cf. Jameson, Habermas, Hartsock).