No will ever know the trouble I went through to get this picture! The copy of Hallucinating Foucault that I read had no pretty artwork. It was quite plainly a hardcover missing its pretty jacket. Did it affect how I read the novel? Perhaps. I always am attracted by bright and beautiful cover art.We read this novel for my Politics and Economics of the Canon, and I had a hard time placing it in a category. Reader's Choice is misleading because I definitely didn't choose this book, but its not a classic, nor is it nonfiction so I guess it has to go there. I will stop complaining though because I really enjoyed this book. It is a treat for English majors, those of us stuck reading crazy literary theorists like Foucault--whose name I finally know how to spell thanks to seeing it on the cover multiple times--and Barthes. This novel offers a (fictional) sneak peek into what it would be like to meet and fall in love with the object of your study. What reader doesn't at one point fantasize, or even just wonder, what it would be like to meet your favorite writer and be able to ask them anything?
Hallucinating Foucault deals with the long debated literary question of reader and author. Duncker's novel, though teasing at times with this theme as it seems she might just let reader and author coexist happily, but in the end she upholds the Barthes' theory of the death of the author. A literary work depends not on the author, but on the reader with all his/her experiences, perceptions, and ideological systems.
*On a side note, one out of nine books I have read so far have caused crying. I am going to keep a tally of how many of the 50 books bring tears to my eyes.
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