Abstract
After Les Mots et les choses, the outer limits begin to disappear from Foucault’s work, and after about 1970, the notions of ‘power’ and ‘politics’ come to occupy an important place in his work. A tremendous amount has been written about this phase of Foucault’s work and it has now become quite a familiar ground. For this reason it is not essential to concentrate too closely on the detail of Foucault’s theories here. In addition, this work will be approached from quite a different angle from that which is usually taken, in keeping with our theme of the ‘history of the limits’.
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Notes
Foucault, ‘Theatrum philosophicum’, 1970, pp.899, 908.
Foucault, ‘Entretien’, 1975, p.3; cf. OD:73 where Foucault remarks that Georges Dumézil encouraged him to write ‘at an age when I still believed that writing was a pleasure’.
Foucault, ‘Entretien avec Raymond Bellour’, 1971, p.201; see also ‘Entretien avec Madeleine Chapsal’, 1966, p.15.
Foucault, ‘Nietzsche, Freud, Marx’, 1967, p.189. This is, of course, a restatement of the views 14. on the modern ‘being of language’ that were expressed in Les Mots et les choses.
Descombes 1979, pp.138–9. See Foucault, ‘Interview with Lucette Finas’, in Morris and Patton, 1979, p.74. ‘As for the problem of fiction, to me this is a very important problem; I am fully aware that I have never written anything other than fictions. For all that, I would not want to say that they are outside truth. It seems possible to me to make fiction work within truth, to induce truth-effects within a fictional discourse, and in some way to make the discourse of truth arouse, “fabricate” something which does not as yet exist, thus “fiction” something.’
Foucault, ‘Vérité et pouvoir’, 1977, p.18; ‘Truth and Power’, in Morris and Patton, 1979, p.32. See also ‘Sorcellerie et folie’, 1976, p.18. Here Foucault declares that ‘madness is no less an effect of power than is non-madness’.
OD:60; cf. Foucault, ‘Theatrum philosophicum’, 1970, p.895.
Foucault, ‘Des supplices aux cellules’, 1975, p.16.
Foucault, ‘Le Piège de Vincennes’, 1970, p.35.
Foucault, ‘Entretien avec Madeleine Chapsal’, 1966, p.15.
Foucault, ‘Revolutionary Action “Until Now”’, in Bouchard 1977, p.228. This interview was originally published in French in 1971.
Foucault, ‘Michel Foucault on Attica’, 1974, p.157. Much later, Foucault declared it was the duty of prisoners to try to escape, since the prison could turn them into ‘dangerous’ characters. ‘Attention: danger’, 1978, p.9.
Foucault and Chomsky, ‘Human Nature’, 1974, p.171.
Foucault, ‘On Popular Justice’ in PK:26, originally published in French 1972; cf ‘Table ronde’, 1972, p.698.
Foucault and Chomsky, ‘Human Nature’, 1974, p.170; Foucault et le GIS (Groupe Information Santé), ‘Médecine et lutte de classes’, 1972, pp.67–73.
Foucault and Deleuze, ‘Les Intellectuels et le pouvoir’, 1972, p.7.
Cf. Foucault, ‘Questions à Michel Foucault sur la géographie’, 1976, p.81.
Foucault, ‘Powers and Strategies’, in Morris and Patton 1979, p.55.
Foucault, ‘Entretien sur la prison’ 1975, p.28; cf. ‘Power and Norm’, in Morris and Patton, 1979, p.60.
Foucault, ‘L’Oeil du pouvoir’, 1977, p.19.
VS.:93; cf. Foucault, ‘Non au sexe roi’, 1977, p.93.
VS:94; cf. Foucault, ‘L’occident et la vérité du sexe’, 1976, p.24.
Foucault, ‘Truth and Power’, in Morris and Patton 1979, p.41.
Foucault, ‘Preface to L’Affaire Mirval’, 1976, p.x; cf. ‘Questions à Michel Foucault sur la géographie’, 1976, pp.72, 74.
Foucault, ‘Non au sexe roi’, 1977, p.105.
Foucault, ‘Débat avec Michel Foucault’, 1980, p.47, Foucault redefines his ‘problem’ or his ‘project’ at least three or four times in this same interview. See also pp.51, 55.
Foucault, ‘Power and Strategies’, in Morris and Patton, 1979, p.52.
Foucault, ‘Vérité et pouvoir’, 1977, p.22; ‘Truth and Power’, in Morris and Patton, 1979, p.46; Foucault and Deleuze, ‘Les Intellectuels et le pouvoir’, 1972, p.4.
Foucault and Deleuze, ‘Les Intellectuels et le pouvoir’, 1972, p.4. See also ‘The political function of the intellectual’, 1977, p.12. This article originally appeared in French in 1976.
Foucault, ‘Vérité et pouvoir’, 1977, pp.25–6; ‘Truth and Power’, in Morris and Patton 1979, pp.46–7. ‘The essential political problem for the intellectual, is not criticising the possible ideological contents of science or making sure that his scientific practice is accompanied by the correct ideology, but knowing that it is possible to establish a new politics of truth. The problem is not one of changing people’s “consciousness” or what is in their heads, but changing the political, economic and institutional order of the production of truth.’
Foucault, ‘Vérité et pouvoir’, 1977, p.24; ‘Truth and Power’, in Morris and Patton 1979, p.43.
Foucault, ‘Foucault répond à Sartre’ 1968, pp.20–21.
Foucault and Deleuze, ‘Les Intellectuels et le pouvoir’, 1972, p.4.
Foucault, ‘Power and Strategies’, in Morris and Patton 1979, p.57; cf. ‘Body/Power’, in PK:62: ‘What the intellectual can do is provide instruments of analysis, and at present, this is the historian’s essential role.’
Foucault, ‘Des supplices aux cellules’, 1975, p.16. Cf. also ‘Sur la sellette’, 1975, p.3. In this interview he portrays himself rather dramatically as a ‘seller of instruments, a provider of recipes, a register of symptoms, a cartographer, a surveyor of plans, a manufacturer of arms.’ See also ‘Questions à Michel Foucault sur la géographie’, 1976, p.73 and ‘Débat avec Michel Foucault’, 1980, p.41.
Gordon, ‘Preface’, 1981, pp.vii–viii; cf. ‘Afterword’, 1981, pp.233, 246, 255; Davis 1975, p.238;
Racevskis, The Freedom of Philosophy 1985, p.126.
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© 1989 Clare O’Farrell
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O’Farrell, C. (1989). The Limits Forgotten. In: Foucault. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-13106-8_5
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