Introduction:
Life, Text and Context
•Who, or rather what, am I?
Madness and Civilization
I. 1926-1945 (Age 0-19):
Life 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
psychology 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:
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