Disciplinarity: An Introduction

Only recently have we begun to think of the discipline as an historically specific form. We have, since Mannheim (1936) and the beginnings of sociology of knowledge, recognized the possibility that knowledge may be constituted on the basis of ideological positions or other interests. We have also been aware of the ways that certain social structures, such as the research university or professionalism, have organized knowledge-production. But it was Foucault who first called attention to the discipline as a system of control in the production of discourse (Foucault 1972: 224) and to discipline as a larger set of strategies and techniques of control that have come to dominate much of modern life (Foucault 1978). To extend this Foucauldian analysis, GRIP (Group for Research into the Institutionalization and Professionalization of literary studies) held a conference on disciplinarity. The essays in this forum were developed from papers presented at Disciplinarity: Formations, Rhetorics, Histories, held at the University of Minnesota, April 20-23, 1989.1