Books
The History of Sexuality, Volume 3: The Care of the Self
– Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality, Volume 3: The Care of the Self. Translated by Robert Hurley. New York: Vintage Books, 1988.The Care of the Self is the third and possibly final volume of Michel Foucault’s widely acclaimed examination of “the experience of sexuality in Western society.” Foucault takes us into the first two centuries of our own era, into the Golden Age of… More
The History of Sexuality, Volume 2: The Use of Pleasure
– Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality, Volume 2: The Use of Pleasure. Translated by Robert Hurley. New York: Vintage Books, 1990.Originally, Foucault announced The History of Sexuality as a six-volume study, with one volume to appear each year, but the poor reception of the first volume caused a crisis for Foucault, and only two more volumes were published. –Chris Barker
The History of Sexuality, Volume 1: An Introduction
– Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality, Volume 1: An Introduction. Translated by Robert Hurley. New York: Vintage Books, 1990.In the first volume of the History of Sexuality: An Introduction (Histoire de la sexualité: La volonté de savoir), published in 1976 (English translation, 1978), Foucault explores and rejects the Freudian hypothesis that civilization represses our sexual… More
Discipline and Punish
– Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. 2nd edition. Translated by Alan Sheridan. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.Discipline and Punish, which begins with a famously gruesome description of the execution of the would-be assassin of King Louis XV, Damiens, summarizes one of Foucault’s most well-known and attractive ideas: theorists can help us to see the scope and… More
The Archaeology of Knowledge
– Foucault, Michel. The Archaeology of Knowledge: and the Discourse on Language. Translated by Alan Sheridan. New York: Vintage Books, 1982.The Archaeology of Knowledge (L’Archéologie du savoir, 1969; English translation, 1972) is a supplement to The Order of Things. In it, Foucault focuses on the human sciences as autonomous systems of discourse without analyzing social institutions.… More
The Birth of the Clinic
– Foucault, Michel. The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception. Translated by Alan Sheridan. New York: Vintage Books, 1994.In the eighteenth century, medicine underwent a mutation. For the first time, medical knowledge took on a precision that had formerly belonged only to mathematics. The body became something that could be mapped. Disease became subject to new rules of… More
The Order of Things
– Foucault, Michel. The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences. Translated by Alan Sheridan. New York: Vintage Books, 1994.The Order of Things (Les Mots et les Choses. Une archéologie des sciences humaines; French publication 1966; English translation, 1970) became a bestseller in France. In it, Foucault analyzes the human sciences that thematize “life, labor, and… More
Madness and Civilization
– Foucault, Michel. Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. Translated by Richard Howard. New York: Vintage, 1988.Foucault dated his own scholarly career from the publication of Madness and Civilization. Madness and Civilization (Folie et Déraison: histoire de la folie à l’âge classique, 1961; abridged by Foucault in 1964; translated as Madness and Civilization: A… More
Mental Illness and Psychology
– Foucault, Michel. Mental Illness and Psychology. Translated by Alan Sheridan. New York: Harper and Row, 1976.Foucault’s Mental Illness and Psychology (originally titled Maladie mentale et Personnalité; then, Maladie Mentale et Psychologie, 1954; English translation, 1958) was Foucault’s first book, but it was also a commissioned piece. Later repudiating his… More
This Is Not a Pipe
– Foucault, Michel. This Is Not a Pipe. Translated and edited by James Harkness. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008.René Magritte’s famous canvas provides the starting point for a delightful homage by French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault. Much better known for his incisive and mordant explorations of power and social exclusion, Foucault here assumes a… More
Essays
Lectures on the Will to Know: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1970–1971, and Oedipal Knowledge
– Foucault, Michel. Lectures on the Will to Know: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1970–1971, and Oedipal Knowledge. Translated by Graham Burchell, edited by Daniel Defert. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.Lectures on the Will to Know reminds us that Michel Foucault’s work only ever had one object: truth. Here, he builds on his earlier work, Discipline and Punish, to explore the relationship between tragedy, conflict, and truth-telling. He also explores… More
The Courage of Truth (the Government of Self and Others II): Lectures at the Collège de France, 1983–1984
– Foucault, Michel. The Courage of Truth (the Government of Self and Others II): Lectures at the Collège de France, 1983–1984. Translated by Graham Burchell, edited by Frédéric Gros. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.The Courage of the Truth is the last course that Michel Foucault delivered at the Collège de France. Here, he continues the theme of the previous year’s lectures in exploring the notion of “truth-telling” in politics to establish a number… More
The Government of Self and Others: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1982–1983
– Foucault, Michel. The Government of Self and Others: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1982–1983. Translated by Graham Burchell, edited by Frédéric Gros. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.This lecture, given by Michel Foucault at the Collège de France, launches an inquiry into the notion of parresia and continues his rereading of ancient philosophy. Through the study of this notion of truth-telling, of speaking out freely, Foucault… More
The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1978–1979
– Foucault, Michel. The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1978–1979. Translated by Graham Burchell, edited by Michel Senellart. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.The Birth of Biopolitics continues to pursue the themes of Foucault’s lectures from Security, Territory, Population. Having shown how eighteenth-century political economy marks the birth of a new governmental rationality–seeking maximum… More
Security, Territory, Population: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1977–1978
– Foucault, Michel. Security, Territory, Population: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1977–1978. Translated by Graham Burchell, edited by Michel Senellart. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.Marking a major development in Foucault’s thinking, this book takes as its starting point the notion of “biopower,” studying the foundations of this new technology of power over populations. Distinct from punitive disciplinary systems, the… More
Psychiatric Power: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1973–1974
– Foucault, Michel. Psychiatric Power: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1973–1974. Translated by Graham Burchell, edited by Jacques Lagrange. New York: Picador, 2008.In Psychiatric Power, the fourth volume in the collection of his groundbreaking lectures at the Collège de France, Michel Foucault addresses and expands upon the ideas in his seminal Madness and Civilization, sketching the genealogy of psychiatry and of its… More
The Hermeneutics of the Subject: Lectures at the Collège de France 1981–1982
– Foucault, Michel. The Hermeneutics of the Subject: Lectures at the Collège de France 1981–1982. Translated by Graham Burchell, edited by Frédéric Gros. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.The Hermeneutics of the Subject is the third volume in the collection of Michel Foucault’s lectures at the Collège de France, where faculty give public lectures on any topic of their choosing. Attended by thousands, Foucault’s lectures were… More
Society Must Be Defended: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1975–1976
– Foucault, Michel. Society Must Be Defended: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1975–1976. Translated by David Macey, edited by Mauro Bertani and Allesandro Fontana. New York: Picador, 2003.From 1971 until 1984 at the Collège de France, Michel Foucault gave a series of lectures ranging freely and conversationally over the range of his research. In Society Must Be Defended, Foucault deals with the emergence in the early seventeenth century of a… More
Abnormal: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1974–1975
– Foucault, Michel. Abnormal: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1974–1975. Translated by Graham Burchell, edited by Valerio Marchetti and Antonella Salomoni. New York: Picador, 2003.The lectures comprising Abnormal begin by examining the role of psychiatry in modern criminal justice, and its method of categorizing individuals who “resemble their crime before they commit it.” Building on the themes of societal self-defense in… More
Fearless Speech
– Foucault, Michel. Fearless Speech. Edited by Joseph Pearson. Los Angeles, CA: Semiotext(e), 2001.Comprised of six lectures delivered, in English, by Michel Foucault while teaching at Berkeley in the Fall of 1983, Fearless Speech was edited by Joseph Pearson and published in 2001. Reviewed by the author, it is the last book Foucault wrote before his death… More
Multimedia
A Critical Intro to Foucault
– Roth, Michael. “A Critical Intro to Foucault.” Lecture, Wesleyan University.Foucault
– Protevi, John. “Foucault.” Materials for Foucault Courses, Department of French Studies, Louisiana State University.[Material for courses on Foucault]
The Foucault Society
– The Foucault Society.[A comprehensive site for bibliographies, biographies, conferences and events, and commentary]
Foucault, Info
– "Foucault, Info."[Free Access to a large selection of excerpted texts; links; and some commentary]
Michel Foucault
– Taylor, Laurie, Stephen Shapiro, Vikki Bell, and Lois McNay. “Michel Foucault.” Thinking Allowed. January 1, 2015.Foucault, Subjectivity and Truth
– Elden, Stuart. “Foucault, Subjectivity and Truth.” Talk delivered at the Centre for Critical Theory, University of Nottingham, November 12, 2014.Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality: An Introduction
– Hendricks, Christina. “Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality: An Introduction.” Lecture, University of British Columbia, February 13, 2014.Introduction to Foucault
– Thorsby, Mark. “Introduction to Foucault.” November 19, 2013.[Online presentation on “Governmentality” and “The Body of the Condemned,” Discipline and Punish]