Foucault
The Birth of Power
Published on 16. February 2017
240 pages
978-1-5095-0729-0 (ISBN)
Description
Michel Foucault s The Archaeology of Knowledge was published in March 1969; Discipline and Punish in February 1975. Although only six years apart, the difference in tone is stark: the former is a methodological treatise, the latter a call to arms. What accounts for the radical shift in Foucault s approach?
Foucault s time in Tunisia had been a political awakening for him, and he returned to a France much changed by the turmoil of 1968. He taught at the experimental University of Vincennes and then moved to a prestigious position at the College de France. He quickly became involved in activist work concerning prisons and health issues such as abortion rights, and in his seminars he built research teams to conduct collaborative work, often around issues related to his lectures and activism.
Foucault: The Birth of Power makes use of a range of archival material, including newly available documents at the Bibliotheque nationale de France, to provide a detailed intellectual history of Foucault as writer, researcher, lecturer and activist. Through a careful reconstruction of Foucault s work and preoccupations, Elden shows that, while Discipline and Punish may be the major published output of this period, it rests on a much wider range of concerns and projects.
Reviews / Votes
"Foucault: The Birth of Power opens an illuminating window into the process of political awakening and philosophical transformation as intellectual history. Drawing on lectures, talks and unpublished as well as published material, Stuart Elden has marshalled the contents of a massive archive to substantiate this pivotal period in the development of one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century." Caren Kaplan, University of California, Davis "This is a brilliant prequel to Elden's masterful book, Foucault's Last Decade. Here, Elden offers a meticulous, erudite reading of the thinker's early years at the Collège de France - a critical time in the arc of his research, which included seminars and conferences on disciplinary power, with deep political engagement and activism on behalf of prisoners. With his unmatched knowledge of Foucault, Elden unearths key intellectual moments and carefully traces Foucault's intellectual journey to the mid-1970s, the publication of Discipline and Punish and the lectures on psychiatric power. Foucault: The Birth of Power is the perfect reading companion to Foucault's "power-knowledge" period." Bernard Harcourt, Columbia University "fascinating" The NationMore details
Other editions
Person
Stuart Elden is Professor of Political Theory and Geography at the University of Warwick and Monash Warwick Professor in the Faculty of Arts, Monash University.
Content
Contents
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Introduction: Out of the 1960s
1. Measure: Greece, Nietzsche, Oedipus
2. Inquiry: Revolt, Ordeal, Proof
3. Examination: Punishment, War, Economy
4. Madness: Power, Psychiatry and the Asylum
5. Discipline: Surveillance, Punishment and the Prison
6. Illness: Medicine, Disease and Health
Conclusion: Towards Foucault?s Last Decade
Notes
Index
A Les Anormaux: Cours au Collège de France (1974-5), eds. Valerio Marchetti and Antonella Salomani, Paris: Seuil/Gallimard, 1999; trans. Graham Burchell as Abnormal: Lectures at the Collège de France 1974-5, London: Verso, 2003. This course is referred to as 'The Abnormals'. AK L'Archéologie du savoir, Paris: Gallimard/Tel, 1969; trans. Alan Sheridan as The Archaeology of Knowledge, New York: Barnes & Noble, 1972. AL Groupe d'information sur les prisons, Archives d'une lutte 1970-1972, eds. Philippe Artières, Laurent Quéro and Michelle Zancarini-Fournel, Paris: Édition de l'IMEC, 2003. C Daniel Defert, 'Chronologie', DE I, 13-64; trans. Timothy O'Leary in Christopher Falzon, Timothy O'Leary and Jana Sawicki (eds.) A Companion to Foucault, Oxford: Blackwell, 2013, pp. 11-83. CMCA Michel Foucault, 'The Crisis of Medicine or the Crisis of Antimedicine?' trans. Edgar C. Knowlton, Jr, William J. King and Clare O'Farrell, Foucault Studies, no. 1, 2004, pp. 5-19. CT Le courage de la vérité: Le gouvernement des soi et des autres II: Cours au Collège de France, eds. Frédéric Gros, Paris: Gallimard/Seuil; trans. Graham Burchell as The Courage of Truth (The Government of the Self and Others II): Lectures at the Collège de France 1983-4, London: Palgrave, 2011. DE Dits et écrits 1954-88, eds. Daniel Defert and François Ewald, Paris: Gallimard, 4 vols., 1994 - with reference to volume number, and also includes text number for ease of reference to the two editions of this text and to bibliographies of English translations.2 Thus 'DE#81 II, 99-104' means text 81, in Volume II, pages 99-104. DP Surveiller et punir - Naissance de la prison, Paris: Gallimard/Tel, 1975; trans. Alan Sheridan as Discipline and Punish - The Birth of the Prison, London: Penguin, 1976. E Roger-Pol Droit, Michel Foucault, Entretiens, Odile Jacob, Paris, 2004. EP François Fourquet and Lion Murard, Les équipments du pouvoir: Villes, territoires et équipements collectifs, Paris: Union Générale d'Éditions, 1976 [1973]. EW Essential Works, eds. Paul Rabinow and James Faubion, trans. Robert Hurley and others, London: Allen Lane, 3 vols., 1997-2000. FL Foucault Live: Interviews 1961-1984, ed. Sylvère Lotringer, New York: Semiotext[e], 1996. GEN Généalogie des équipements de normalisation: Les équipements sanitaires, ed. Michel Foucault, Fontenay-sous-Bois: CERFI, 1976. HFA 'Histoire de la folie et antipsychiatrie', in Philippe Artières, Jean-François Bert, Frédéric Gros and Judith Revel (eds.), Cahier de L´Herne 95: Michel Foucault, Paris: L´Herne, 2011, pp. 95-102. HM Histoire de la folie à l'âge classique, Paris: Gallimard, 1972 [1961]; trans. Jonathan Murphy and Jean Khalfa as History of Madness, London: Routledge, 2006. HSu L'Herméneutique du sujet: Cours au Collège de France (1981-82), eds. Frédéric Gros, Paris: Gallimard/Seuil, 2001; trans. Graham Burchell as The Hermeneutics of the Subject: Lectures at the Collège de France, London: Palgrave, 2005. IN Groupe d'information sur les prisons, Intolérable, ed. Philippe Artières, Paris: Éditions Verticales, 2013. LCP Language, Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews, ed. Donald F. Bouchard, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1977. LWK Leçons sur la volonté de savoir: Cours au Collège de France, 1970-1971, suivi de Le savoir d'Odipe, ed. Daniel Defert, Paris: Gallimard/Seuil, 2011; trans. Graham Burchell as Lectures on the Will to Know: Lectures at the Collège de France 1970-71, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. MD Groupe Information Santé, La médecine désordonnée: D'une pratique de l'avortement à la lutte pour la santé, Paris: GIS, 1974. MG1 Michel Foucault, Blandine Barrett Kriegel, Anne Thalamy, François Beguin and Bruno Fortier, Les machines à guérir (aux origines de l'hôpital moderne), Paris: Institut de l'environnement, 1976. MG2 Michel Foucault, Blandine Barrett Kriegel, Anne Thalamy, François Beguin and Bruno Fortier, Les machines à guérir (aux origines de l'hôpital moderne), Brussels: Pierre Mardaga, revised edn 1979. MLC Michel Foucault et le membres du GIS, 'Médecine et luttes des classes', Vers une antimédecine? Le médecine, la malade et la société, special issue of La Nef, no. 49, 1972, pp. 67-73. OD L'ordre du discours, Paris: Gallimard, 1970; trans. Ian McLeod as "The Order of Discourse", in Robert Young (ed.), Untying the Text: A Post-Structuralist Reader, London: Routledge, 1981, pp. 48-78. O Ouvres, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, ed. Frédéric Gros, Paris: Gallimard, 2 vols., 2015. ONA Groupe Information Santé, Oui, nous avortons! Paris: Éditions Gît-le-Cour, 1973. PH Politiques de l'habitat (1800-1850), ed. Michel Foucault, Paris: CORDA, 1977. P/K Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972-7, ed. Colin Gordon, Brighton: Harvester, 1980. PP Le pouvoir psychiatrique: Cours au Collège de France (1973-4), ed. Jacques Lagrange, Paris: Seuil/Gallimard, 2003; trans. Graham Burchell as Psychiatric Power: Lectures at the Collège de France 1973-4, London: Palgrave, 2006. PR Moi, Pierre Rivière, ayant égorgé ma mère, ma sour et mon frère: Un cas de parricide au XIXe siècle, presented by Michel Foucault, Paris: Gallimard/Juilliard, 1973; trans. Frank Jellinek as I, Pierre Rivière, Having Slaughtered my Mother, my Sister, and my Brother: A Case of Parricide in the Nineteenth Century, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982. PS La société punitive: Cours au Collège de France (1972-3), ed. Bernard E. Harcourt, Paris: Gallimard/Seuil, 2013; trans. Graham Burchell as The Punitive Society: Lectures at the Collège de France 1972-3, London: Palgrave, 2015. SKP Space, Knowledge and Power: Foucault and Geography, eds. Jeremy W. Crampton and Stuart Elden, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007. SMBD 'Il faut défendre la société': Cours au Collège de France (1975-6), eds. Mauro Bertani and Alessandro Fontana, Paris: Seuil/Gallimard, 1997; trans. David Macey as 'Society Must Be Defended', London: Allen Lane, 2003. TIP Théories et institutions pénales: Cours au Collège de France (1971-1972), ed. Bernard E. Harcourt, Paris: Gallimard/Seuil, 2015.
BNF Archives et Manuscrits, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris IMEC Fonds...
Abbreviations
To ease reference, key texts are referred to by abbreviations. For texts where one book is translated in a single book, such as the lecture courses, the French page number is given first, followed by the English after a slash. So PP 105/103 would refer to the lecture course Le pouvoir psychiatrique, p. 105 in the French text, and p. 103 in the English translation Psychiatric Power. I have frequently modified existing translations.1
Throughout this book, English titles are used for books available in translation; French for untranslated works or unpublished manuscripts, though an English translation of the title is provided the first time they are used.
Texts by Foucault and others
A Les Anormaux: Cours au Collège de France (1974-5), eds. Valerio Marchetti and Antonella Salomani, Paris: Seuil/Gallimard, 1999; trans. Graham Burchell as Abnormal: Lectures at the Collège de France 1974-5, London: Verso, 2003. This course is referred to as 'The Abnormals'. AK L'Archéologie du savoir, Paris: Gallimard/Tel, 1969; trans. Alan Sheridan as The Archaeology of Knowledge, New York: Barnes & Noble, 1972. AL Groupe d'information sur les prisons, Archives d'une lutte 1970-1972, eds. Philippe Artières, Laurent Quéro and Michelle Zancarini-Fournel, Paris: Édition de l'IMEC, 2003. C Daniel Defert, 'Chronologie', DE I, 13-64; trans. Timothy O'Leary in Christopher Falzon, Timothy O'Leary and Jana Sawicki (eds.) A Companion to Foucault, Oxford: Blackwell, 2013, pp. 11-83. CMCA Michel Foucault, 'The Crisis of Medicine or the Crisis of Antimedicine?' trans. Edgar C. Knowlton, Jr, William J. King and Clare O'Farrell, Foucault Studies, no. 1, 2004, pp. 5-19. CT Le courage de la vérité: Le gouvernement des soi et des autres II: Cours au Collège de France, eds. Frédéric Gros, Paris: Gallimard/Seuil; trans. Graham Burchell as The Courage of Truth (The Government of the Self and Others II): Lectures at the Collège de France 1983-4, London: Palgrave, 2011. DE Dits et écrits 1954-88, eds. Daniel Defert and François Ewald, Paris: Gallimard, 4 vols., 1994 - with reference to volume number, and also includes text number for ease of reference to the two editions of this text and to bibliographies of English translations.2 Thus 'DE#81 II, 99-104' means text 81, in Volume II, pages 99-104. DP Surveiller et punir - Naissance de la prison, Paris: Gallimard/Tel, 1975; trans. Alan Sheridan as Discipline and Punish - The Birth of the Prison, London: Penguin, 1976. E Roger-Pol Droit, Michel Foucault, Entretiens, Odile Jacob, Paris, 2004. EP François Fourquet and Lion Murard, Les équipments du pouvoir: Villes, territoires et équipements collectifs, Paris: Union Générale d'Éditions, 1976 [1973]. EW Essential Works, eds. Paul Rabinow and James Faubion, trans. Robert Hurley and others, London: Allen Lane, 3 vols., 1997-2000. FL Foucault Live: Interviews 1961-1984, ed. Sylvère Lotringer, New York: Semiotext[e], 1996. GEN Généalogie des équipements de normalisation: Les équipements sanitaires, ed. Michel Foucault, Fontenay-sous-Bois: CERFI, 1976. HFA 'Histoire de la folie et antipsychiatrie', in Philippe Artières, Jean-François Bert, Frédéric Gros and Judith Revel (eds.), Cahier de L´Herne 95: Michel Foucault, Paris: L´Herne, 2011, pp. 95-102. HM Histoire de la folie à l'âge classique, Paris: Gallimard, 1972 [1961]; trans. Jonathan Murphy and Jean Khalfa as History of Madness, London: Routledge, 2006. HSu L'Herméneutique du sujet: Cours au Collège de France (1981-82), eds. Frédéric Gros, Paris: Gallimard/Seuil, 2001; trans. Graham Burchell as The Hermeneutics of the Subject: Lectures at the Collège de France, London: Palgrave, 2005. IN Groupe d'information sur les prisons, Intolérable, ed. Philippe Artières, Paris: Éditions Verticales, 2013. LCP Language, Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews, ed. Donald F. Bouchard, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1977. LWK Leçons sur la volonté de savoir: Cours au Collège de France, 1970-1971, suivi de Le savoir d'Odipe, ed. Daniel Defert, Paris: Gallimard/Seuil, 2011; trans. Graham Burchell as Lectures on the Will to Know: Lectures at the Collège de France 1970-71, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. MD Groupe Information Santé, La médecine désordonnée: D'une pratique de l'avortement à la lutte pour la santé, Paris: GIS, 1974. MG1 Michel Foucault, Blandine Barrett Kriegel, Anne Thalamy, François Beguin and Bruno Fortier, Les machines à guérir (aux origines de l'hôpital moderne), Paris: Institut de l'environnement, 1976. MG2 Michel Foucault, Blandine Barrett Kriegel, Anne Thalamy, François Beguin and Bruno Fortier, Les machines à guérir (aux origines de l'hôpital moderne), Brussels: Pierre Mardaga, revised edn 1979. MLC Michel Foucault et le membres du GIS, 'Médecine et luttes des classes', Vers une antimédecine? Le médecine, la malade et la société, special issue of La Nef, no. 49, 1972, pp. 67-73. OD L'ordre du discours, Paris: Gallimard, 1970; trans. Ian McLeod as "The Order of Discourse", in Robert Young (ed.), Untying the Text: A Post-Structuralist Reader, London: Routledge, 1981, pp. 48-78. O Ouvres, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, ed. Frédéric Gros, Paris: Gallimard, 2 vols., 2015. ONA Groupe Information Santé, Oui, nous avortons! Paris: Éditions Gît-le-Cour, 1973. PH Politiques de l'habitat (1800-1850), ed. Michel Foucault, Paris: CORDA, 1977. P/K Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972-7, ed. Colin Gordon, Brighton: Harvester, 1980. PP Le pouvoir psychiatrique: Cours au Collège de France (1973-4), ed. Jacques Lagrange, Paris: Seuil/Gallimard, 2003; trans. Graham Burchell as Psychiatric Power: Lectures at the Collège de France 1973-4, London: Palgrave, 2006. PR Moi, Pierre Rivière, ayant égorgé ma mère, ma sour et mon frère: Un cas de parricide au XIXe siècle, presented by Michel Foucault, Paris: Gallimard/Juilliard, 1973; trans. Frank Jellinek as I, Pierre Rivière, Having Slaughtered my Mother, my Sister, and my Brother: A Case of Parricide in the Nineteenth Century, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982. PS La société punitive: Cours au Collège de France (1972-3), ed. Bernard E. Harcourt, Paris: Gallimard/Seuil, 2013; trans. Graham Burchell as The Punitive Society: Lectures at the Collège de France 1972-3, London: Palgrave, 2015. SKP Space, Knowledge and Power: Foucault and Geography, eds. Jeremy W. Crampton and Stuart Elden, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007. SMBD 'Il faut défendre la société': Cours au Collège de France (1975-6), eds. Mauro Bertani and Alessandro Fontana, Paris: Seuil/Gallimard, 1997; trans. David Macey as 'Society Must Be Defended', London: Allen Lane, 2003. TIP Théories et institutions pénales: Cours au Collège de France (1971-1972), ed. Bernard E. Harcourt, Paris: Gallimard/Seuil, 2015.
Archival material
BNF Archives et Manuscrits, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris IMEC Fonds...
