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  Foucault: A Very Short Introduction

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  Gary Gutting

  FOUCAULT

  A
Very Short Introduction

  Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP

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  First published as a Very Short Introduction 2005

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organizations. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above

  You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer

  British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

  Data available

  Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

  Gutting, Gary.

  Foucault : a very short introduction / Gary Gutting.

  p. cm.—(A very short introduction)

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  1. Foucault, Michel. I. Title. II. Very short introductions. B2430.F724G86 2005

  194—dc22 2004030575

  ISBN 0-19-280557-6 (alk. paper)

  EAN 9780192805577

  1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

  Typeset by RefineCatch Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd., Padstow, Cornwall

  To Anastasia as always with love

  Contents

  Acknowledgements

  Abbreviations

  List of illustrations

  1 Lives and works

  2 Literature

  3 Politics

  4 Archaeology

  5 Genealogy

  6 The masked philosopher

  7 Madness

  8 Crime and punishment

  9 Modern sex

  10 Ancient sex

  References and further reading

  Index

  Acknowledgements

  I wrote the first draft of this essay during summer 2003, in conjunction with my seminar on Foucault at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität in Frankfurt. Many thanks to Axel Honneth for his invitation and many kindnesses, to the students in my Foucault seminar for their interest and questions, and to the staff at the Literaturhaus Restaurant (especially Oliver and Franz) for their hospitality, good food, and splendid wine.

  As always, the first and best reader of my manuscript was my wife, Anastasia Friel Gutting. I am also grateful for very helpful comments from Jerry Bruns and Todd May. My thanks to Marsha Filion of OUP for suggesting and supporting this project.

  Abbreviations

  The following abbreviations are used throughout to denote works by Foucault.

  Foucault’s books

  AK (DL)

  The Archaeology of Knowledge, tr. Alan Sheridan (New York: Vintage, 1972). Also includes ‘The Discourse on Language’ (DL), a translation of L’ordre du discours, Foucault’s inaugural address at the Collège de France.

  BC

  The Birth of the Clinic, tr. Alan Sheridan (New York: Vintage, 1973).

  CS

  The Care of the Self, Volume 3 of The History of Sexuality, tr. Robert Hurley (New York: Vintage, 1986).

  HF

  Histoire de la folie à l’âge classique (Paris: Gallimard, 1972).

  HS

  The History of Sexuality, Volume 1: An Introduction, tr. Robert Hurley (New York: Vintage, 1978).

  DP

  Discipline and Punish, tr. Alan Sheridan (New York: Vintage, 1977).

  MC

  Madness and Civilization, tr. Richard Howard (New York: Vintage, 1965). This is a greatly abridged translation of HF.

  OT

  The Order of Things, tr. Alan Sheridan (New York: Vintage, 1970). Translation of Les mot et les choses.

  RR

  Death and the Labyrinth: The World of Raymond Roussel, tr. Charles Ruas (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Co., 1986). Translation of Raymond Roussel. Includes an interview of Foucault by Charles Ruas.

  UP

  The Use of Pleasures, Volume 2 of The History of Sexuality, tr. Robert Hurley (New York: Vintage, 1985).

  Collections of Foucault’s articles, lectures, and interviews

  DE

  Daniel Defert and François Ewald (eds), Dits et écrits, 1954–1988, four volumes (Paris: Gallimard, 1994). Includes virtually everything, other than his books, that Foucault published.

  EW

  The Essential Works of Michel Foucault, ed. Paul Rabinow. A three-volume translation of selections from Dits et écrits.

  EW I

  Volume 1, Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth, ed. Paul Rabinow, tr. Robert Hurley et al. (New York: New Press, 1997).

  EW II

  Volume 2, Aesthetics: Method and Epistemology, ed. James Faubion, tr. Robert Hurley et al. (New York: New Press, 1998).

  EW III

  Volume 3, Power, ed. James Faubion, tr. Robert Hurley et al. (New York: New Press, 2000).

  P/K

  Colin Gordon (ed.), Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972–1977 (New York: Pantheon, 1980).

  PPC

  Lawrence Kritzman (ed.), Michel Foucault: Philosophy, Politics, Culture, tr. Alan Sheridan (London: Routledge, 1988).

  These last two collections contain some important pieces not in EW.

  List of illustrations

  1 Foucault at the top of his class

  Private collection

  2 Raymond Roussel, 1895

  © Rue des Archives

  3 Georges Bataille

  © Photos12.com/Interfoto

  4 Foucault and Sartre

  © Gérard Aimé

  5 Foucault talking at W. Berlin Technical University, 1978

  © Raymond Depardon/Magnum Photos

  6 Georges Cuvier examining animal fossils

  © Bettmann/Corbis

  7 ‘The Holy Trinity’: Lou Salomé, Paul Rée, and Friedrich Nietzsche, 1882

  © akg-images

  8 Immanuel Kant

  © 2004 TopFoto.co.uk

  9 Gaston Bachelard

  © Rue des Archives

  10 Pinel Freeing the Insane (1876), oil painting by Tony Robert-Fleury Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris

  © Photos12.com/ARJ