Foucault: Lecture 23, 13 May 1986

Listed in Datasets publication by group The Deleuze Seminars

By Gilles Deleuze

Lecture given by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze at the University of Paris 8, 13 May 1986. This is lecture 23 of a 25-lecture seminar Deleuze taught between October 1985 and May 1986.

Version 1.0 - published on 27 Mar 2018 doi:10.4231/R7SB43ZJ - cite this Archived on 27 Apr 2018

Licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported

Deleuze_gallery_image.jpg

Description

The Deleuze Seminars is a collection of audio recordings, transcriptions, and English translations of, and supplemental materials from, the lectures French philosopher Gilles Deleuze gave during his career at the University of Paris 8.

"Foucault" was a 25-lecture seminar given from October 1985 to May 1986. In these lectures, Deleuze offers his interpretation and analysis of French philosopher Michel Foucault's work. Examining the theoretical foundations and major themes of Foucault's philosophy, Deleuze dedicates several lectures to each of what he calls the "three axes" of Foucault's thought. This seminar coincides with the publication of Deleuze's book Foucault (1986).

In the 13 May 1986 lecture, topics of discussion include: subjectivation according to Foucault; four aspects of the fold: 1) the fold and the body, 2) the rule of the fold, 3) the relationship of the subject and the true, and 4) life in the folds and what the subject is entitled to expect (en droit d'attendre); the Greeks and subjectivation; the fold of force on itself; the rivalry between free agents; Marxism and subjectivation; the aesthetic dimension of subjectivation; the German Marxist philosopher Ernst Bloch and his concept of the concrete utopia; the individuating methods of power practicing on subjectivation; the production of historical subjectivations which do not pass through knowledge (le savoir) and power; the forgetting of old powers, and the lack of archaism for subjectivations; memory as a fold, as subjectivation; the variety of modes of subjectivation; the Hegelian dialectic; the difference between the systemic (studies of systems in disequilibrium, the heterogeneous units between them, and transversal relations from one unit to another) and the systematic (dialectic and homogeneous); and social struggles (luttes) and new modes of subjectivation. Deleuze also discusses the following three problems: 1) What are the new struggles in relation to new forms of possible struggle? Is there a new role for the intellectual in these struggles, and in relation to old or new knowledges? How do modes of subjectivation that have their own rules (leurs règles propres) come into contact with (entrent en rapport avec) the new struggles?

This dataset includes: five mp3 recordings of the lecture (total time, 2:40:04), an aggregate version of the audio recordings into a single mp3, and the complete French transcription of the recorded lecture in both pdf (35 pp) and plain text.

-

Les Séminaires de Deleuze sont une collection d'enregistrements audio, de transcriptions et de traductions en anglais et de documents complémentaires des conférences que le philosophe français Gilles Deleuze a donné lors de sa carrière à l'Université de Paris 8.

«Foucault» était un séminaire de 25 conférences donné d'octobre 1985 à mai 1986. Dans ces conférences, Deleuze offre son interprétation et son analyse de l’œuvre du philosophe français Michel Foucault. En examinant les fondements théoriques et les thèmes majeurs de la philosophie de Foucault, Deleuze consacre plusieurs conférences à chacun de ce qu'il appelle les «trois axes» de la pensée de Foucault. Ce séminaire coïncide avec la publication du livre de Deleuze Foucault (1986).

Dans la conférence du 13 mai 1986, les sujets de discussion comprennent: la subjectivation selon Foucault; quatre aspects du pli: 1) le pli et le corps, 2) la règle du pli, 3) la rapport entre le sujet et le vrai, et 4) la vie dans les plis et ce que le sujet est en droit d'attendre; les Grecs et la subjectivation; le pli de la force sur soi-même; la rivalité entre les agents libres; le marxisme et la subjectivation; la dimension esthétique de la subjectivation; le philosophe marxiste allemand Ernst Bloch et son concept de l'utopie concrète; les méthodes individuantes du pouvoir s’exerÒ«ant sur la subjectivation; la production de subjectivations historiques qui ne passent pas par le savoir et le pouvoir; l'oubli des anciennes pouvoirs et le manque d'archaïsme pour les subjectivations; la mémoire comme un pli, comme subjectivation; la variété des modes de subjectivation; la dialectique hégélienne; la différence entre le systémique (études des systèmes en déséquilibre, les unités hétérogènes entre elles, et les relations transversales d'une unité à une autre) et le systématique (dialectique et homogène); et luttes sociales et de nouveaux modes de subjectivation. Deleuze discute aussi les trois problèmes suivants: 1) Quelles sont les nouvelles luttes par rapport aux nouvelles formes de lutte éventuelles? Y a-t-il un nouveau rôle pour l'intellectuel dans ces luttes et par rapport aux savoirs anciens ou nouveaux? Comment des modes de subjectivation qui ont leurs propres règles entrent en rapport avec les nouvelles luttes?

Cite this work

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

Tags

Notes

This research has been generously supported through a grant from the College of Liberal Arts, Purdue University.

The translations of Deleuze’s “Foucault” seminars have been made possible by a Scholarly Editions and Translations grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. This research has also been generously supported through a grant from the College of Liberal Arts, Purdue University.

The description of this dataset is based on the meticulous work of Frédéric Astier, whose Les cours enregistrés de Gilles Deleuze, 1979-1987 has catalogued Deleuze’s seminars for those years.

Special thanks to the family of Gilles Deleuze, the University of Paris 8, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France for permission to reproduce the material published here.

The Deleuze Seminars

The Deleuze Seminars group image

The Purdue University Research Repository (PURR) is a university core research facility provided by the Purdue University Libraries and the Office of the Executive Vice President for Research and Partnerships, with support from additional campus partners.