With the goal of identifying ruptures with traditionalist history discourse, this essay offers a reading of the various uses of history in Foucault's archeology. I begin by analyzing and describing the purpose of the notion of archeology, based on Foucault's own elucidations. I then describe the set of notions (event, discursive formation, and enunciation) intertwined within the concept of archive, in an attempt to demonstrate Foucault's analytical inventiveness in his contribution to the field of history, which he approaches from the paradox between unity and dispersion of enunciations. Lastly, I explore the enunciation of mechanisms for controlling discourse, with the aim of identifying elements of transition from descriptive work on discursive formations undertaken in the archeology of knowledge, to an analysis of the interplay of strategies both in discursive as well as non-discursive practices found in the genealogy of power.
Foucault; archeology; discontinuity; archive; history