Introduction:Introduction:Life, Text and ContextLife, Text and Context

•Who, or rather what, am I?

Madness and Civilization

I. I. 1926-1945 (Age 0-19): 1926-1945 (Age 0-19): Life in HometownLife in Hometown

1926: Born, Poitiers, France

1936-40: Lycée Henri-IV

1939: W W II 1940-45: College St,

Stanislas

II. 1945-1955 (Age 19-29): Life in Paris

1945: Lycée Henri IV, Paris

1946: Ecole Normale Superieure

1948: licence de philosophie

1949: licence de psychologie

1951: agrégation de philosophie

1952-55: teaches pyschology at University of Lille

III. 1955-1960 (Age 29-34):Life abroad

1955-58: teaches French culture and language at University of Uppsala, Sweden

1958: Director of French Center at University of Warsaw, Poland

1959: Director of French Institute in Hamburg, Germany

Foucault and Jean Daniel

IV. 1960-1966 (Age 34-40): Life in Paris • 1960-66: teaches philosophy and psycholog

y at Clermont-Ferrand

• 1961: Doctorat ès lettres

• 1961: publication of Birth of the Clinic

• 1965-66: works on the educational reforms

V. 1966-1968 (Age 40-42): Life in Tunisia

1966-68: Visiting Professor of Philosophy, University of Tunis

1968: The May Student Revolt in Paris

VI. 1968-1984 (Age 42-58): Life in Paris and abroad

1969: Elected to College de France

1969: publication of The Archaeology of Knowledge

1970-1983: regular visits to US; occasional trips to Brazil and Japan

1971-73: organizes “The Prisoners Information Group”

(photo: Demonstration with Sarte and André in 1971)

1975-83: liberal political orientation: human rights, critique of totalitarian systems

1975: publication of Discipline and Punish

1976: publication of History of Sexuality, vol. 1

1984: publication of volumes 2 and 3 of History of Sexuality

1984: dies in Paris, June 25.

Foucault’s Life-long Partner:Foucault’s Life-long Partner:Daniel Defer Daniel Defer

• “I have lived for 18 years in a state of passion toward someone. At some moments, this passion has taken the form of love. But in truth, it is a matter of a state of passion between the two of us.”

(Foucault, 1981)

This Introduction aims to broadly demonstrate Foucault’

s theory and practice in terms of his Three major shifts:

1) Archeology: focusing on systems of knowledge in 1960s,

Ex: Madness and Civilization (1961)

Birth of the clinic (1963) The Order of Things (1966) The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969)

2) Genealogy:

focusing on modalities of power in 1970s

Ex: Discipline and Punish (1975) The History of Sexuality Vol. I (1976)

Photo: Protest in Spain against the imminent execution of ETA and FRAP militants in September 1975

3) Techniques of the Self:

　 focusing on technologies of the self, ethics and freedom in 1980s.

Ex: The History of Sexuality Vol. II (1984)

The History of Sexuality Vol. III (1984)

Foucault says,

“The goal of my work during the last twenty years has not been to analyzed the phenomena of power, nor to elaborate the foundations of such an analysis. My objective, instead, has been to create a history of the different modes by which, in our culture, human beings are made subjects.”

Ethics

“Maybe the target nowadays in not to discover what we are, but to refuse what we are.” (Foucault 1982)

Photo: Foucault and Jean-Paul Sartre (Fotolib);

His schema of three modes of objectification of the subject:

1. The first mode of objection of the subject — “dividing practices.”

Ex. Discourses combining the mediation of a science and the practice of exclusion.

2. The second mode of objection of the subject—“scientific classification.”

Ex. Discourses of life, labor and language.

3. The third mode of objection of the subject— “subjectification”

Ex. Discourses of sex.

The End:

Welcome to

The Foucauldian World