Studies in French Philosophy: Reading Foucault
This course offers an overview of the work of one of the most important late twentieth century French philosophers, Michel Foucault. Focusing on his studies of madness, the medical gaze, incarceration, prisons and other institutions, gendered, sexed and confessing subjects, subjects seeking truth, knowledge, freedom or liberation, students will have the opportunity to consolidate their understanding of Foucault's use of the terms: archaeology, power, biopower, discipline, interiority, resistance, strategy, dispositif, governmentality, genealogy, truth, knowledge, ethics and aesthetics of existence, through close reading of his main texts. The course is reading intensive: you should plan to read several of Foucault's major texts throughout the quarter.