The aesthetic excess as an enabler of the transformation of the self in Foucault

Abstract

This article starts from the hypothesis that in Foucault’s work the possibility of becoming another is concentrated in a series of figures that are related to aesthetics. The figures that are going to be analyzed are five in which the relationship and tension between what is considered established and the possibility of being different from what it was are present, of which three are going to be especially rescued: the transgression, the thought from the outside and the fold. In these figures that Foucault uses to think about the possibility of transforming oneself, aesthetic excess is present: while “transgression” and “thought from outside” are figures closely linked to modern literature and desubjectivation, which is the “fold” is related to what Foucault called “aesthetics of existence” and subjectivation. Both processes are similar insofar as they seek transformation of the subject (and for this reason they can be assimilated to philosophical activity understood in a spiritual sense), but they are two different ways of doing it. Finally, an analysis of the political importance of aesthetics in Foucault will be made through the categories of Rancière’s thought, to highlight the political implications of aesthetic excess.