Exclusion (external and internal)/ rarefaction of discourse

In his essay “The Order of Discourse” Foucault assumes that in every society the production
of discourse is at once controlled, selected, organized and redistributed by a certain
procedures or principles of “exclusion” or “rarefaction” of discourse. These principles can be
external or internal within an order of discourse.

A. External procedures:

1) Prohibition. The subject matter of discourse may be forbidden, e.g. sexuality and politics.

2) Division of discourses:

a) Opposition between madness and reason. The discourse of madness is rejected, except on
the stage as a garb of wisdom. Today the same division operates, though filtered through the
discourse of psychoanalysis, etc.

b) Opposition between truth and falsity. Some discourses have shaped and created meaning
systems that have gained the status and currency of 'truth', whilst other alternative discourses
are marginalized and subjugated as counter-productive or “false”. The standards of how truth
and falsity are measured can change according to a given society’s value system, but they are
always guided by our will to truth, and thereby to knowledge and power.

B. Internal procedures:

1) Division between canonical texts and their commentaries. In course of time, some of the
major texts may become blurred and disappear, and sometimes commentaries may move into
the primary position. Every new commentary, to be included within the order of discourse
must offer something authentic about the original text. Some of the commentaries will
become the 'main stream' and form a canon with a hierarchy that excluded other
commentaries.
2) The author-principle. Authorship acts as a principle of grouping of discourses, conceived
as the unity and origin of their meanings, as the focus of their coherence, as the agency to
reveal the hidden meaning in them by referencing to the author’s lived experiences and thus
to the contemporary history.

3) Organization of disciplines. A discipline, such as medicine, botany, sociology etc., defines

the kind of discourse permissible within its ambit, not just any kind of discourse, thus
controlling the production of discourse, fixing limits to what can be said within the discipline.