Interpretation of Space and Understanding of Self: Reading Foucault and Ricoeur in One Frame

Abstract

This paper explores how the interpretation of space opens possibilities for self-understanding in the later works of Michel Foucault and Paul Ricoeur. First, the thinkers' projects in post-structuralist hermeneutics of the subject/self are situated in the aftermath of the "overthrow of the Cogito" by the "masters of suspicion." Next, an analysis of space as a text-analogue is passed through to understand the self's exteriorisation of meaning in built space. Here, Foucault's history of the Western concept of space is unpacked through Stephan Gunzel's exposition, and Foucault and Ricoeur are discussed as thinkers on space. Finally, "refiguration of space" is identified as the phase in which possibilities for the revealing and transforming of the self are opened. The paper shows that "spatiality of the self" offers another point of intersection to further imaginary conversations between Foucault and Ricoeur in the context of their shared concern for the self.