I think you can start where ever you wish, unless you are attempting
to construct "Foucault the author" in your head, so maybe you should
start with "What is an Author?" first ;-)
If you are reading Spinoza and Marx maybe the best place to start would be 'Discipline and Punish', 'Society Must Be Defended', and 'The Will to Knowledge'. Whether you read them in French or English is up to you ... I presume you will read both eventually anyway, or at least check one against the other in difficult passages. You might also want to read the essays by Balibar and Macherey in the collection 'Michel Foucault: Philosopher' and Macherey's book 'In a Materialist Way', or the essays by Warren Montag on Foucault (in Yale French Studies No. 88 & the special issue of Pli on Foucault), as these will help you to place Foucault relative to Spinoza, Marx, & Hegel. There is also an essay by Montag on Althusser's reading of Foucault, Derrida, and Nietzsche in the special issue of borderlands e-journal edited by myself, and an essay there on Foucault and Althusser on Machiavelli by Adam Holden and Stuart Elden. You can find those at http://www.borderlands.net.au/issues/vol4no2.html
good luck with it all!
On 19/07/2008, at 8:22 AM, Nicole Garner wrote:
If you are reading Spinoza and Marx maybe the best place to start would be 'Discipline and Punish', 'Society Must Be Defended', and 'The Will to Knowledge'. Whether you read them in French or English is up to you ... I presume you will read both eventually anyway, or at least check one against the other in difficult passages. You might also want to read the essays by Balibar and Macherey in the collection 'Michel Foucault: Philosopher' and Macherey's book 'In a Materialist Way', or the essays by Warren Montag on Foucault (in Yale French Studies No. 88 & the special issue of Pli on Foucault), as these will help you to place Foucault relative to Spinoza, Marx, & Hegel. There is also an essay by Montag on Althusser's reading of Foucault, Derrida, and Nietzsche in the special issue of borderlands e-journal edited by myself, and an essay there on Foucault and Althusser on Machiavelli by Adam Holden and Stuart Elden. You can find those at http://www.borderlands.net.au/issues/vol4no2.html
good luck with it all!
On 19/07/2008, at 8:22 AM, Nicole Garner wrote:
Hello All
I have been lurking here reading thoughts about Foucault for a year now because I always like what I hear about him. I have, unfortunately read little of him, very little.
I would like to know where I should start reading him, I have finally finished de Beauvoir, Sartre, and Fanon, all of it. For the most part aside from what I had read in class as an undergrad and my inability to wait to read Les Damnes de la terre and Adeiux, I read all three in chronological order and I found it quite helpful in seeing the change in thier thought through the years. I am not sure where to start with Foucault, if I should start chronologically again or if there is a better way to start him. I am also not sure whether to try him in French or in English, my native language is English but I did read most of Sartre and de Beauvoir in French exclusively, the only Fanon I have read in English is Black Skin White Masks. I am at times a bit unsure of my French and am intimidated by starting Foucault so any help of where to start will be appreciated. It will be slow going though, I am also reading for my comps because I am finishing my masters in fall so I am rer!
ea!
ding Hegel and Marx and Spinoza right now. Unfortunately those are the highlights of our comps! It is all downhill to elitist hell from there.
Thanks in advance for any assitance,
Nicole
The people come to realize that wealth is not the fruit of labor but the result of organized, protected robbery. Rich people are no longer respectable people; they are nothing more than flesh eating animals, jackals, and vultures which wallow in the people's blood. Frantz Fanon
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