ENG5600: The Work and Legacy of Michel Foucault
Dr. Kyle Jensen
Languages Building #409G
Office Hours: T, Th 8-10am; by appointment
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Introduction
I think we should have the modesty to say to ourselves that, on the one hand, the time we live in is not the unique or fundamental or irruptive point in history where everything is completed and begun again. We must also have the modesty to say, on the other hand that—even without this solemnity—the time we live in is very interesting; it needs to be analyzed and broken down, and that we would do well to ask ourselves, “What is the nature of our present?
—Michel Foucault
There is considerable debate, in contemporary theoretical circles, over whether Michel Foucault’s intellectual oeuvre is relevant in the contemporary historical moment. Deleuzeans often contend that we have reached the end of the “disciplinary society” that Foucault theorizes in Discipline and Punish in order to assert the prevalence of a new society characterized by digitization and networks of control. Lacanians are also keen to demonstrate the limitations of Foucault’s concepts, asserting that his theories of power and subjectivization are unhelpful in conceptualizing acts of radical political resistance. And if one were prone to following Jean Baudrillard’s lead, one would be inclined to simply Forget Foucault for his apparent failure to account for the simulative nature of dominant culture.
At the most basic level, what all of these critiques demonstrate is that Foucault is a landmark intellectual whose theoretical oeuvre must be struggled over continually. Given the level of impact his work has had in a range of academic disciplines we might assert that he has ascended to the ranks of such luminaries as Marx and Freud, who forever altered the way we understand what it means to be human.
The purpose of this course is to understand why one might wish to struggle with Foucault. We will begin in his archaeological period and learn how he developed innovative methodologies to study the discursive nature of knowledge production and dissemination. We will then study his genealogical period, where he traced the interstices between dominant social institutions. Finally, we will examine his third stage, where he introduced the concepts of biopower and governmentality in order to explain how the will to produce knowledge about the body and the imperative to care for one’s self organized bodies and secured social relations. Foucault’s final stage, as we will see, is currently receiving the most critical attention and is, at this point, up for grabs. We will discuss how to engage in these debates through a careful reading of his work; we will also speculate on what relevance Foucault has in explaining the contemporary historical moment.
Course Readings
The Order of Things by Michel Foucault
History of Madness by Michel Foucault
Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault
The History of Sexuality vol. 1 by Michel Foucault
Foucault Live by Michel Foucault
Foucault Beyond Foucault by Jeffrey Nealon
Mad For Foucault by Lynne Huffer
Homo Sacerby Giorgio Agamben
Bodies That Matter by Judith Butler
Bios by Roberto Esposito
Assignments
Hupomnemata or a notebook (15%)
In ancient Greece, hupomnemata were used as memoranda where one “entered quotations, fragments of works, examples, and actions to which one had been witness of or of which one had read the account, reflections or material memory of things read, heard, or thought, thus offering these as an accumulated treasure for rereading and later meditation. They also formed a raw material for the writing of more systematic treatises in which were given arguments and means by which to struggle against some defect . . . or to overcome some difficult circumstance” . . . “no technique, no professional skill can be acquired without exercise.”
—Michel Foucault
Please use this text to take notes in class, notes on reading, notes on ideas for papers, notes on how ideas connect to experiences, notes on just about everything. Because the content of this course exceeds the boundaries of its time limits, I would like you to use this text as a preparatory site that helps you come to class with questions, connections, concerns, ideas, drawings, sketches, graphs, models etc. Initially, I will provide prompts that will help you learn to prepare for class; as the term unfolds, these prompts will lessen and you will become responsible for preparing yourself for class. My only formal requirement is that you write them manually.
Indexing Project (15%)
As you work through the assigned readings, you will catalogue crucial concepts, cross-reference overlapping arguments, identfy the evolution of ideas, and find coherences between Foucault's works and the secondary works we read about Foucault.
Short papers (15% x 3)
These papers are to be no longer than (2) pages, single-spaced, 10pt. Times New Roman. In these papers you will demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of the concepts Foucault advances by applying his concepts to a phenomenon of your choosing. Each paper should be carefully conceived and argued, revised multiple times, and represent a level of sophistication that is characteristic of advanced graduate work. Although these papers are short, you should approach them with the same level of preparation and seriousness as you would a final seminar paper.
Dossier (25%)
Foucault was, if nothing else, a supreme archivist, collecting apparently inconsequential artifacts and drawing from them meaningful demonstrations of significant shifts in knowledge. In this tradition, you will also collect artifacts in order to explain, from a Foucaultian standpoint, how they elucidate a phenomenon of your choosing. This work must begin in a particular area of academic study. For example, you might consider how Foucault’s theory of sexuality circulates in feminist theory, or how concepts such as biopower have influenced disability studies. From there, your work should introduce new artifacts that enrich the conversation. Annotate each of your artifacts and provide a substantive evaluation how well they use Foucault’s work. You will then use these annotations to develop a synthesis that describes the state of the conversation and its potential for growth.
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