Michel Foucault

Demonstration in support of immigrant workers. Michel Foucault in the foreground. Paris, 1973. Photo: Gilles Peress.

Michel Foucault (born Paul-Michel Foucault, 15 October 1926 – 25 June 1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, social theorist, philologist and literary critic. His theories addressed the relationship between power and knowledge, and how they are used as a form of social control through societal institutions. Though often cited as a post-structuralist and postmodernist, Foucault ultimately rejected these labels, preferring to classify his thought as a critical history of modernity.

Works by Michel Foucault

Monographs

• Raymond Roussel, 1963–.
• The Birth of the Clinic, 1963–.
• The Order of Things, 1966–.
• The Archaeology of Knowledge, 1969–.
• L'ordre du discours [The Discourse on Language], 1971– [1].
  • Ordinea discursului. Un discurs despre discurs, trans. Ciprian Tudor, EUROSONG & BOOK, Bucureşti, 1998 (in Romanian).
• Histoire de la folie à l'âge classique [History of Madness], 1972–.
• This Is Not a Pipe, 1973–.
• Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison, 1975–.
• The History of Sexuality.
  • Vol. 1: An Introduction, 1976–.
  • Vol. 2: The Use of Pleasure, 1984–.
  • Vol. 3: The Care of the Self, 1984–.

Editor

• I, Pierre Riviere, having slaughtered my mother, my sister, and my brother: A Case of Parricide in the 19th Century, 1973–.
• Herculine Barbin, Being the Recently Discovered Memoirs of a French Hermaphrodite, 1978–.
• Le Désordre des familles. Lettres de cachet with Arlette Farge, Gallimard, 1982-.

Lectures

• "Of Other Spaces, Heterotopias". Architecture, Mouvement, Continuité, no. 5 (1984): 46-49.
• La Volonté de Savoir: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1970-71-.
• Manet and the Object of Painting, 1971–.
• Théories et Institutions Pénales: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1971–72-.
• La Société Punitive: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1972-73-.
• Le pouvoir psychiatrique [Psychiatric Power: Lectures at the Collège de France], 1973-74-.
• Les anormaux [Abnormal: Lectures at the Collège de France], 1974-75-.
• Il faut défendre la société: Cours au Collège de France, 1976, Paris: Seuil/Gallimard, 1974-1975, 1997; 2001; 2012. (in French) [2] [3]
  • Defender la sociedad, trans. François Ewald and Alessandro Fontana, Buenos Aires: Fondo de Cultura Economica, 2000; 2nd. ed, 2001 (in Spanish).
  • Society Must Be Defended: Lectures at the College de France, 1975-1976, trans. David Macey, Picador, 2003.
  • Je třeba bránit společnost, trans. Petr Horák, Prague: Filosofia, 2005 (in Czech).
  • Em defesa da sociedade, trans. Maria Ermantina Galvão, São Paulo: Martins Fortes, 1999; 4th ed., 2005 (in Portuguese).
• Sabbatical - no lectures given, 1976-77-.
• Sécurité, territoire, population [Security, Territory and Population: Lectures at the Collège de France], 1977-78- [4].
• Naissance de la biopolitique The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1978-79– [5].
• The Politics of Truth, 1978-84–.
• Du gouvernement des vivants, 1979-80-.
• Subjectivité et Vérité, 1980-81-.
• The Hermeneutics of the Subject: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1981-82- [6].
• Fearless Speech, 1983–.
• The Government of Self and Others: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1982-83-.
• The Courage of Truth: Lectures at the Collège de France (Government of Self & Others 2), 1983-84- [7].

Articles

• "Introduction à l'Anthropologie de Kant", 1961, English version: "Introduction to Kant's Anthropology from a pragmatic point of view", trans. Arianna Bove.
• "La Loi de la pudeur" on radio on France Culture on April 4, 1978. Print in: RECHERCHES no. 37, April 1979. english trans. by Daniel Moshenberg in: "The Danger of Child Sexuality", Semiotext(e) Magazine (New York): Semiotext(e) Special Intervention Series 2: Loving Boys / Loving Children (Summer 1980).

Anthologies

• Donald F. Bouchard (ed.), Language, counter-memory, practice, 1977.
• Colin Gordon (ed.), Power/Knowledge, 1980.
• Paul Rabinow (ed.),The Foucault Reader, 1984
• Lawrence D. Kritzman (ed.), Politics, Philosophy, Culture: Interviews and Other Writings, 1977-1984, 1988.
• Dits et écrits, 4 volumes, 1994 (in French).
• Sylvère Lotringer (ed.), Foucault Live, 2nd Edition, 1996.
• Sylvère Lotringer (ed.), The Politics of Truth, 1997.
• Paul Rabinow (ed.), Ethics: subjectivity and truth (Essential Works Vol. 1), 1997
• James D. Faubion (ed.), Aesthetics, Method, Epistemology (Essential Works Vol.2), 1998
• James D. Faubion (ed.), Power (Essential Works Vol. 3), 2000.
• Paul Rabinow and Nikolas Rose (eds), The Essential Foucault, 2003.

On Michel Foucault

• Hubert L. Dreyfus, Paul Rabinow, Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics, 1982–.
• Gilles Deleuze, Foucault, Editions de Minuit, 1986. (in French)
  • Foucault, trans. José Vázquez Pérez, Barcelona: Paidós Ibérica, 1987. (in Spanish)
  • Foucault, trans. Bogdan Ghiu, Cluj: Idea Design & Print, 2002. (in Romanian)
• Lisa Downing, The Cambridge Introduction to Michel Foucault, Cambridge University Press, 2008.
• Dianna Taylor (ed.), Michel Foucault: Key Concepts, 2011.
• Gary Gutting, "Michel Foucault", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2013.

Bibliography

• Compiled by Machiel Karskens
• Compiled by Richard A. Lynch

Resources

• Resources on Michel Foucault, Department of Communication Studies, University of Minnesota.
• Portail Michel Foucault.
• Foucault on UbuWeb Sound
• Foucault, Info
• Michel Foucault Audio Archive
• Foucault' blog