Ubu acclaimed. A Foucauldian dissertation on the political functionality of the grotesque

Abstract

A fleeting reflection on what Foucault calls “grotesque sovereignty,” associated with the Jarryan figure of Ubu Roi, appears at the beginning of Les Anormaux, as part of a sort of prologue to the treatment of the psychiatric expert—the central theme of the course. The very few words devoted to this sovereignty stand in sharp contrast to the great importance they appear to confer upon it, producing the impression that a fundamental political issue has been left in suspension. Among the various questions raised by Foucault’s brief analysis of this grotesque manifestation of power, this paper will inquire into its functionality—or, in other words, into the strategic rationale behind its emergence. To do so, it will draw on other texts from Foucault’s corpus, especially his analysis of the Cynic monarch in The Courage of Truth, which is considered particularly fruitful for this task.