FOUCAULT AND THE MAENADS: READING AN EXAMPLE OF PARRHESIASTIC PACT

Abstract

This text seeks to problematize the notion of parrhesia in the context of Euripides tragedy, The Phoenicians, in the light of the French philosopher Michel Foucault. To do so, we will make a parallel taking parrhesia as a practice of freedom. It is about problematizing the production of a history of the different processes of composition of human subjectivity and the realization of the practice of freedom, that is, of the modern subject, which presents us with possibilities for a critical philosophy – the moment in which the subject gives himself the right to question the effects of discourses of truth through the exercise of power. Under these conditions, the techniques of the self are presented in the form of an experience of the self that allows the construction of a relationship with oneself based on regular exercises in governing oneself and others.

KEYWORDS: Parrhesia; Speak freely; Foucault; Practice; Freedom; Resistance; Power; bell hooks.