Sarkozy: Foucauldian?

In this interview the philosopher Michel Onfray interviews Nicolas Sarkozy and cheekily gives him a book by Foucault at the end.

“Do you really think that my situation is that bad?” protests Sarkozy…

Long, useful summary of History of Sexuality

D. Travers Scott has posted a long and detailed summary of the whole of History of Sexuality, Vol 1.

Scott is a Ph.D student at USC and writes it all up in an easy, contemporary style.

Hupomnēmata and blogging

In light on some recent analysis of blogging from the perspective of its labor value (and sign value) it might be worth recalling some rather under-used concepts from Foucault: hupomnēmata and self-writing.

This concept allows for a practice which is non-confessional, that is, it is not meant to be an outpouring of something that already exists (and a seeking of some kind of absolution or affirmation) but a process, event or practice in and of itself. That is, what Foucault calls hupomnēmata.

Special issue on biopolitics

Culture Machine, a journal dedicated to “generating research in culture & theory” has a special issue on biopolitics.

From the Editorial:

Blogs, government and the GOP

(Updated)

I actually like reading the political blogs because they are a kind of crucible that reflect on some of the issues that Foucault raises, such as government.

The DailyKos for example postulates that the GOP can’t succeed in power, because they are the party that wants to abolish government.

But is this argument reasonable?

Difference between racism and race wars

A self-described almost-finished politics student at Lancaster University raises an issue we should talk about more:

The difference between racism and race wars in Foucault.

Full text of What is an Author?

Someone has scanned in the full text of the essay What is an Author? and made it available. Previously only excerpts were available (at the Foucault.info site).

The legal status of these texts is unclear. Additionally, since this is an image scan, it seems to me nothing is gained over having the original book (a text-based scan is at least searchable).

Foucault in Iran

Before Afary and Anderson published their book analyzing Foucault’s travel to and writings on Iran, they published a piece in New Politics which condenses some of their material.

This is available online.

Reed Elsevier and the boycott

As if to illustrate the previous post on our complicity in {surveillance | government}, here is an update on the moves to boycott Elsevier’s journals and projects.

As you may know, Elsevier have a sister company that organizes the world’s largest arms fair, DSEI. They are also an academic publisher, and I am a section editor in one of their flagship products, the International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (IEHG). There is currently a boycott of the IEHG, but I have chosen to remain involved.

Ideolect has coverage.

Foucault translator has new book

There’s a nice profile of Lydia Davis, who has translated some of Foucault’s pieces (eg., Polemics, Politics and Problematizations) in the New York Times.

Her new book is called Varieties of Disturbance.

Her belief that language is both the subject and the medium of fiction has not led her, as we might expect, into solipsistic echo chambers, but into new worlds.