Foucault

1988
Author:

Gilles Deleuze
Translated by Seán Hand
Foreword by Paul A. Bové

The first analysis of Foucault’s work by a major philosopher working within the same poststructuralist tradition.

The first analysis of Foucault’s work by a major philosopher working within the same poststructuralist tradition.

Of all the various studies of Foucault which I know, from Dreyfus and Rabinow to Major-Poetzl to Sheridan, none has the intellectual and personal authority of this book. Deleuze is, after all, an intellectual in his own right who not only provides a sense of Foucault, but above all, adapts his friend’s work to his own concerns and shows what can be done by thinking seriously along with Foucault rather than trying to produce a guide or handbook.

Paul Bové, University of Pittsburgh

"Of all the various studies of Foucault which I know, from Dreyfus and Rabinow to Major-Poetzl to Sheridan, none has the intellectual and personal authority of this book. Deleuze is, after all, an intellectual in his own right who not only provides a sense of Foucault, but above all, adapts his friend's work to his own concerns and shows what can be done by thinking seriously along with Foucault rather than trying to produce a guide or handbook." -Paul Bové

"Deleuze is particularly good at analyzing Foucault's discussions of the differentiation between language and entities or events and the 'microphysics' of power acting through all beings and the capacity of 'resistance' to powers." -Review of Metaphysics

Since the completion of The History of Madness in 1960, Michel Foucault (1926-1984) has been an important figure in the Western intellectual tradition. He was instrumental in making institutions-in both the literal and the abstract sense-the objects of scholarly research. The significance of Foucault's work has generated many studies, but this analysis by Gilles Deleuze is the first by a major philosopher working within the same poststructuralist tradition. Published in France in 1986, Deleuze's work is distinguished by its focus on the conceptual underpinnings of Foucault's extensive writings.

Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995) was professor of philosophy at the University of Paris, Vincennes-St. Denis. With Félix Guattari, he coauthored Anti-Oedipus, A Thousand Plateaus, and Kafka. He was also the author of Cinema 1, Cinema 2, Essays Critical and Clinical,The Fold, Francis Bacon, Kant's Critical Philosophy, and Proust and Signs.

Seán Hand is head of the School of Languages at Oxford Brookes University.

Paul Bové is a professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh and the editor of the journal Boundary 2.

Deleuze is particularly good at analyzing Foucault’s discussions of the differentiation between language and entities or events and the ‘microphysics’ of power acting through all beings and the capacity of ‘resistance’ to powers.

Review of Metaphysics

Of all the various studies of Foucault which I know, from Dreyfus and Rabinow to Major-Poetzl to Sheridan, none has the intellectual and personal authority of this book. Deleuze is, after all, an intellectual in his own right who not only provides a sense of Foucault, but above all, adapts his friend’s work to his own concerns and shows what can be done by thinking seriously along with Foucault rather than trying to produce a guide or handbook.

Paul Bové, University of Pittsburgh