PLEASE NOTE this is a sample reading list for the 2015-16 academic year – precise seminar content
may change from year to year.
Programme of lectures and seminars:
Week 1:
Lecture: Introduction to the Module as a Whole. Brief biography of Foucault and introduction to his
thought.
Week 2:
Seminar: What are philosophers for?
Reading: I. Kant, “An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?” (1784), in The Cambridge
Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant, Practical Philosophy, translated and edited by Mary J.
Gregor, 1996; M. Foucault, “What is Enlightenment?” in The Foucault Reader, edited by P. Rabinow.
Lecture: The Genealogy of Liberalism
Reading: M. Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 10 January + 17 January 1979; also excerpts
from Security, Territory, Population (especially 1 Feb. 1978) and “Society must be defended”
Week 3:
Seminar: The Birth of Biopolitics
Reading: “Society must be defended,” lecture of 17 March 1976; Security, Territory, Population,
lectures of 11 January 1978, 25 January and 1 February 1978
Lecture: The Genealogy of Liberalism (cont.)
Reading: M. Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 24 January 1979
Week 4:
Seminar: Foucault and History
Reading: M. Foucault, “On the Ways of Writing History” (1967) and “Who are you, Professor
Foucault?” (1967).
Lecture: The Genealogy of Neoliberalism (with emphasis on Mises and Hayek)
Reading: The Birth of Biopolitics, 31 January + 7 February 1979
Week 5:
Seminar: Foucault and History (cont.)
Reading: M. Foucault, “Nietzsche, Genealogy, History”
Lecture: The Genealogy of Neoliberalism (cont., with emphasis on Chicago School)
Reading: M. Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 14 + 21 March 1979
Week 6: Reading Week
Week 7:
Seminar: The Mechanics of Power
Reading: M. Foucault, “The Subject and Power” in R. Dreyfus and P. Rabinow (eds), Michel Foucault:
Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics
Lecture: The Genealogy of Neoliberalism (cont.) and the Question of (Self-)
Governmentality
Reading: The Birth of Biopolitics, 28 March + 4 April 1979
Week 8:
Seminar: Bataille’s Political Economy
Reading: G. Bataille, “The Notion of Expenditure” in Visions of Excess
Lecture: “The Limit of Utility:” Introducing Bataille’s Project
Week 9:
Seminar: Bataille’s Political Economy
Reading: G. Bataille, The Accursed Share, Volume 3 (Sovereignty), Part One, Chapter 1 (p. 247-261)
Lecture: Reviving Sovereignty
Reading: G. Bataille, The Accursed Share, Volume 3 (Sovereignty)
Week 10:
Seminar: Bataille on Sovereignty
Reading: G. Bataille, The Accursed Share, Volume 3 (Sovereignty), Part One, Chapters 3 and 4 (p. 225260).
Lecture: General Conclusion and Discussion