Hatoum, Said and Foucault: Intellectual Resistance through Revealing the Power-Knowledge Nexus

Abstract

I have discussed Mona Hatoum's art works in the light of Edward Said and Michel Foucault's ideologies. Hatoum's revelation of the power network through her suggestive art works is compared with that of Foucalut through his disclosure of the nexus. To me, both Foucault and Hatoum illustrate an oppositional critcal stance which Said terms as the 'exile'. Said and Hatoum were practically exiled in foreign lands. What I argue is that through their experiences they delineate an ideology the core of which is skepticism about the ideas of culture and identity. As Foucault's critical stance echoes this ideological core, I conclude that he also is one of the resisting 'exilic intellectuals'. In effect, the intellectuals' reistance asks for a re-examination of our cultural, political, historical, humanistic or artistic assumptions and affiliations.