(Hi)stories of Knowledge and Power. On the Effects of Michel Foucault on Contemporary Trends in Memory Studies

Abstract

The ideas and publications of Michel Foucault affect significantly the memory studies. The article shows how to interpret the achievements of the French thinker in the context of his immense popularity. The work of Foucault became the inspiration for new studies of the past, in which the main role played discovering oppression and discrimination. This extremely involved writing focused on the medium-haul phenomena presented in the long term.

Works by Foucault and his followers are interpreted in this text as belonging to historical prose genre characteristic of contemporary historiography and memory studies. Hayden White’s ideas have served as an inspiration for this interpretation.