Intolerable
Writings from Michel Foucault and the Prisons Information Group (1970–1980)
Michel Foucault and Prisons Information Group
Edited by Kevin Thompson and Perry Zurn
Translated by Perry Zurn and Erik Beranek
Founded by Michel Foucault and others in 1970–71, the Prisons Information Group (GIP) circulated information about the inhumane conditions within the French prison system. Intolerable makes available for the first time in English a fully annotated compilation of materials produced by the GIP during its brief but influential existence, including an exclusive new interview with GIP member Hélène Cixous and writings by Gilles Deleuze and Jean Genet.
The Prisons Information Group was a crucial part of Foucault’s political trajectory, but it was an intensely collaborative project between intellectuals, prisoners, and their families. Expertly translated and introduced, this is the definitive collection of the group’s writings. Although the focus is France, the texts also illuminate other European countries, while the Algerian war opens up questions of colonialism, and the group’s links to the Black Panthers make it important for an understanding of the politics of race. A significant book that is both long overdue and a timely intervention in contemporary debates about police and prison abolition and reform.
Stuart Elden, author of The Early Foucault
Founded by Michel Foucault and others in 1970–71, the Prisons Information Group (GIP) circulated information about the inhumane conditions within the French prison system. Intolerable makes available for the first time in English a fully annotated compilation of materials produced by the GIP during its brief but influential existence, including an exclusive new interview with GIP member Hélène Cixous and writings by Gilles Deleuze and Jean Genet.
$35.00 paper ISBN 978-1-5179-0235-3
$140.00 cloth ISBN 978-1-5179-0234-6
456 pages, 5 b&w photos, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2, August 2021
Michel Foucault (1926–1984) was a French historian and philosopher associated with the structuralist and poststructuralist movements; his writing has been widely influential throughout the humanities and social sciences. Among his most notable titles are History of Madness, Discipline and Punish, and The History of Sexuality.
The Prisons Information Group was a crucial part of Foucault’s political trajectory, but it was an intensely collaborative project between intellectuals, prisoners, and their families. Expertly translated and introduced, this is the definitive collection of the group’s writings. Although the focus is France, the texts also illuminate other European countries, while the Algerian war opens up questions of colonialism, and the group’s links to the Black Panthers make it important for an understanding of the politics of race. A significant book that is both long overdue and a timely intervention in contemporary debates about police and prison abolition and reform.
Stuart Elden, author of The Early Foucault
Intolerable contributes to incarceration studies by highlighting the contributions (and pointing to the contradictions) of the Prisons Information Group (GIP). By emphasizing the activism of the GIP, it demonstrates how the author and theorist as an academic activist was influenced by the militancy of political actors and revolutionaries who took great risks, especially as incarcerated intellectuals and rebels, to challenge repression structured by racial/colonial capitalism and captivity.
Joy James, author of Seeking the Beloved Community: A Feminist Race Reader
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New Books in Politics and Polemics: "A groundbreaking collection"
New Books in Politics and Polemics: "A groundbreaking collection"
Intolerable: Writings from Michel Foucault and the Prisons Information Group (1970-1980) (University of Minnesota Press, 2021), edited by Kevin Thompson and Perry Zurn, is a groundbreaking collection of writings by Michel Foucault and the Prisons Information Group documenting their efforts to expose France's inhumane treatment of prisoners.