Flaubert , Foucault , and the Bibliotheque Fantastique

PTS OF KNOMT.F.DGE, MF.\NING, and communication, dominant ivithin the discourse of library and information science, are facing a crisis: they are unable to adequately characterize and structure the experience of interacting with and within the modern academic library. This article addresses the issue of epistemology and library and information science by considering Michel Foucault’s ( 1967/ 1977) essay “La Bibliotheque Fantastique” Tvhich is a work of literary criticism rather than a “scientific” analysis. The usefulness of considering the library experience from the point of view of literary criticism lies in its potential to provide an alternative perspective from which the rationalistic assumptions of a positivistic epistemolo<qcan be foi-egrounded, transcended, and critiqued, along with the conception of the academic library which it supports. Following a brief account of the iniplications of the positivist perspective for conceptualizing the modem library experience, this article will offer an alternatire postmodern epistemology from which library scholars can rethink traditional notions of the library, librarian and, most importantly library us-