POL 397 - Foucault: Power, Subjectivity, Truth

This course is an introduction to the work of one of the twentieth-century’s most influential thinkers, Michel Foucault (1926-84). We begin with his “genealogical” studies, Discipline and Punish and The History of Sexuality vol. I, focusing on the relationship between power, knowledge, and subjectivity in modernity. We will also address questions of method, including the influence of Nietzsche. Turning to Foucault’s lectures at the Collège de France in the latter half of the 1970s, we will consider how biopower, apparatuses of security, and neoliberal governmentality intersect in the contemporary politics of mass incarceration, digital surveillance, and pandemic response. Finally, we will assess Foucault’s “ethical turn” (the care of the self, an aesthetics of existence, and parrhesia or fearless speech) in terms of its possibilities and limitations for political thought and action. Throughout, we will attend to a variety of challenges posed by Foucault’s critics, including historians (on how we think, write, and deploy history); critical theorists (on the legacy of the Enlightenment); and feminists (on oppression, agency, and liberation).

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group II
Prerequisite(s): HUM 110
Instructional Method: Conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Not offered: 2023-24