You, the subject you are not an entity

Foucault and subject as vacant site

For Foucault, the subject is not an entity. The category of the subject is a function. Crucially, it is a function of enunciation. As such it is constituted in and by the act of making a statement, even (indeed, most frequently) by the act of making a statement to one's self. It is also, however, an "empty" function, a "vacant space" (Foucault, 1979: p.95) bounded by, and only identifiable in, a particular and specifiable network of discursive relations - relations that are themselves endlessly variable and multiple. Each shift of the boundaries defines another "vacant place" from which statements can be made.