Hagiografi

[Hagiografi: fra gresk hagios og grafein, «å skrive om hellige» betegner studiet av helgener, med fokus på enkeltpersoner.]

So let me make it official. I may not have worshiped Foucault at the time I wrote One Hundred Years of Homosexuality, but I do worship him now. As far as I'm concerned, the guy was a fucking saint.

Not that I imagine Foucault to have led either a sexually or a morally perfect life. In fact, I know almost nothing about his life beyond what I've read in three recent biographies [...] I never met Foucault myself. I never even laid my eyes on him. My relation to him is indirect and secondary: like my relation to virtually every other great writer, ancient or modern, that I have ever studied, it is entirely mediated, imaginary, and – why bother to deny it? – hagiographical. (s.6)

– David M. Halperin Saint Foucault - Towards a Gay Hagiography.

Halperins beskrivelse av den hagiografiske forskeren er ytterst presis. Man sitter der og skriver om fantastiske og overskridende kunstverk med disse uungåelig medierte, fantasmatiske og imaginære bildene av kunstneren i hodet. Hvordan kan man unngå at glorien begynner å lyse over bildet? Jeg sier det som Halperin "As far as I'm concerned, Felix Gonzalez-Torres was a fucking saint!"