An Explication and Excavation of Foucault’s Archaeological Method in Sections I and II of “The Prose of the World” Tyler Rodgers College

Throughout “The Prose of the World,” Michel Foucault establishes himself as a conceptual archaeologist, one who seeks to uncover the history and theories behind what he calls “the human sciences.” It is a method in which Foucault reexamines previously accepted patterns in the formation of systems of knowledge, and pieces together the existing evidence of these systems to formulate his own historical theories behind the emergence of such systems. In this archaeological method, Foucault makes the conscious decision not to analyze humans or objects as a mean of understanding the progression of knowledge, but chooses instead to focus on concepts, examining them with an archaeological rigor which treats these concepts like isolated artifacts, giving them a distinctly physical quality. In his discussion of the similitudes and signatures in “The Prose of the World,” Foucault aligns his method of analysis to the practice of archaeology through the use of figurative language, the motif of archaeological imagery, and the layered structure of the text. By employing these devices, Foucault uncovers, examines, and exhibits pieces of evidence to establish the nature of the four similitudes, as well as the signatures that mark their...