Michel Foucault: This Is Not a Pipe (1973–) [ES, EN, PT, SK, RU]

“What does it mean to write ‘This is not a pipe’ across a bluntly literal painting of a pipe? René Magritte’s famous canvas provides the starting point for a delightful homage by French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault. Much better known for his incisive and mordant explorations of power and social exclusion, Foucault here assumes a more playful stance. By exploring the nuances and ambiguities of Magritte’s visual critique of language, he finds the painter less removed than previously thought from the pioneers of modern abstraction.”

Originally published in French as Ceci n’est pas une pipe, Fata Morgana, Montpellier, 1973

English edition
Translated and Edited by James Harkness
With Illustrations and Letters by Rene Magritte
Publisher University of California Press, Berkeley/Los Angeles/London, 1983
ISBN 0520042328, 9780520042322
66 pages

Review (Marcel Chabot)

Publisher (EN)

Esto no es una pipa (Spanish, trans. Francisco Monge, 4th ed., 1981/1997, updated on 2014-6-6)
This Is Not a Pipe (English, trans. James Harkness, 1983, updated on 2014-7-4)
Isto não é um cachimbo (Portuguese, trans. Jorge Coli, 5th ed., 1988/2008, added on 2014-2-24)
Toto nie je fajka (Slovak, trans. Miroslav Marcelli, 1994, no OCR)
Eto ne trubka (Russian, trans. Irina Kulik, 1999, added on 2014-6-6)