FLAUBERT, FOUCAULT, AND THE BIBLIOTHEQUE FANTASTIQUE - TOWARD A POSTMODERN EPISTEMOLOGY FOR LIBRARY-SCIENCE

POSITIVIST CONCEPTS OF KNOWLEDGE MEANING, and communication, dominant within the discourse of library and information science, ale facing a crisis: they are unable to adequately characterize and structure the e xperience of interacting with and within the modern academic library.. This article addresses the issue of epistemology and library and info rmation science by considering Michel Foucault's (1967/1977) essay ''L a Bibliotheque Fantastique'' which is a work of literary criticism rat her than a ''scientific'' analysis. The usefulness of considering the library experience from the point of view of literary criticism lies i n its potential to provide an alternative perspective fi om which the rationalistic assumptions of a positivistic epistemology can be foregr ounded, transcended, and critiqued, along with the conception of the a cademic library which it supports, Following a brief account of the im plications of the positivist perspective for conceptualizing the moder n library experience, this article will offer. an alternative postmode rn epistemology from which library scholars can rethink traditional no tions of the library: librarian and, most importantly library users.