Accumulation Quote by Michel Foucault
“To seek in the great accumulation of the already-said the text that resembles "in advance" a later text, to ransack history in order to rediscover the play of anticipations or echoes, to go right back to the first seeds or to go forward to the last traces, to reveal in a work its fidelity to tradition or its irreducible uniqueness, to raise or lower its stock of originality, to say that the Port -Royal grammarians invented nothing, or to discover that Cuvier had more predecessors than one thought, these are harmless enough amusements for historians who refuse to grow up.”
About This Quote
Source Book: The Archaeology of Knowledge, Michel Foucault, 1969
Historians often search for patterns and echoes in past works, balancing tradition and originality, sometimes treating scholarship as a playful pastime.
In simple terms: Scholars look for links between past and present, weighing tradition against originality.
Key Takeaway
Recognize both influence and innovation in analysis.
Themes
history
scholarship
tradition
originality
analysis
Mood
reflective
analytical
Type
critical
intellectual
When to use this quote
- academic research
- literary criticism
- museum curation
- archaeological study
Key Concepts
archaeology
intertextuality
historical methodology
Questions to Reflect On
- How do you balance respecting tradition with fostering originality?
- What value does playful scholarship bring to serious study?
A Different Perspective
May overlook the lived impact of texts on contemporary societies.
