Abstract

The question of a genealogy of race and gender is first and foremost a question of methodology. By bringing to bear the critical tools provided by Foucauldian methodology on the construction of race and gender in the specific historical case of Levittown, this chapter explores the manner in which the stories that inform our sense of “the way things are,” are shaped historically. Moreover, the chapter argues that the significance of the institutions and discourses becomes apparent only once they are placed within the context of the play of relations of power and the deployment of bodies of knowledge. A genealogical analysis of Levittown reveals that the concepts of race and gender are not only essential to any conception of modern subjectivity, but also for the products of a network of relations of power.