Misplaced Pages

#755244

109-619: Zabriskie Point is a part of the Amargosa Range located east of Death Valley in Death Valley National Park in California, United States , noted for its erosional landscape. It is composed of sediments from Furnace Creek Lake, which dried up 5 million years ago—long before Death Valley came into existence. The location was named after Christian Brevoort Zabriskie , vice-president and general manager of

218-585: A Diploma in Psychopathology ( Diplôme de psychopathologie ) from the university's institute of psychology (now Institut de psychologie de l'université Paris Descartes  [ fr ] ) in June 1952. Over the following few years, Foucault embarked on a variety of research and teaching jobs. From 1951 to 1955, he worked as a psychology instructor at the ENS at Althusser's invitation. In Paris, he shared

327-758: A March 1963 lecture at the University of Paris . Responding with a vicious retort, Foucault criticised Derrida's interpretation of René Descartes . The two remained bitter rivals until reconciling in 1981. In the English-speaking world, the work became a significant influence on the anti-psychiatry movement during the 1960s; Foucault took a mixed approach to this, associating with a number of anti-psychiatrists but arguing that most of them misunderstood his work. Foucault's secondary thesis ( thèse complémentaire ), written in Hamburg between 1959 and 1960,

436-549: A "juvenile delinquent", he said his father was a "bully" who sternly punished him. In 1930, two years early, Foucault began his schooling at the local Lycée Henry-IV. There he undertook two years of elementary education before entering the main lycée , where he stayed until 1936. Afterwards, he took his first four years of secondary education at the same establishment, excelling in French, Greek, Latin, and history, though doing poorly at mathematics, including arithmetic . In 1939,

545-595: A "love affair" with Roussel's work. It was published in English in 1983 as Death and the Labyrinth: The World of Raymond Roussel . Receiving few reviews, it was largely ignored. That same year he published a sequel to Folie et déraison , titled Naissance de la Clinique , subsequently translated as The Birth of the Clinic : An Archaeology of Medical Perception . Shorter than its predecessor, it focused on

654-516: A "representative of Gaullist technocracy", even though he considered himself a leftist. Foucault was in Tunis during the anti-government and pro-Palestinian riots that rocked the city in June 1967, and which continued for a year. Although highly critical of the violent, ultra-nationalistic and anti-semitic nature of many protesters, he used his status to try to prevent some of his militant leftist students from being arrested and tortured for their role in

763-493: A 1970 movie by Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni ; its soundtrack features music by British bands Pink Floyd and the Rolling Stones , Americans Jerry Garcia and Grateful Dead , among others. The philosopher Michel Foucault called his 1975 acid trip at Zabriskie Point the greatest experience of his life. This location is featured prominently on the cover of U2 's album The Joshua Tree . This location

872-614: A Historical Transcendental in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit ). In 1948, the philosopher Louis Althusser became a tutor at the ENS. A Marxist , he influenced both Foucault and a number of other students, encouraging them to join the French Communist Party . Foucault did so in 1950, but never became particularly active in its activities, and never adopted an orthodox Marxist viewpoint, rejecting core Marxist tenets such as class struggle . He soon became dissatisfied with

981-468: A bibliography. Foucault submitted it at the University of Paris , although the university's regulations for awarding a State doctorate required the submission of both his main thesis and a shorter complementary thesis. Obtaining a doctorate in France at the period was a multi-step process. The first step was to obtain a rapporteur , or "sponsor" for the work: Foucault chose Georges Canguilhem . The second

1090-545: A breathtaking performance. Interested in the work of Swiss psychologist Ludwig Binswanger , Foucault aided family friend Jacqueline Verdeaux in translating his works into French. Foucault was particularly interested in Binswanger's studies of Ellen West who, like himself, had a deep obsession with suicide, eventually killing herself. In 1954, Foucault authored an introduction to Binswanger's paper "Dream and Existence", in which he argued that dreams constituted "the birth of

1199-671: A column for them. In doing so, in 1978 he travelled to Tehran in Iran, days after the Black Friday massacre. Documenting the developing Iranian Revolution , he met with opposition leaders such as Mohammad Kazem Shariatmadari and Mehdi Bazargan , and discovered the popular support for Islamism . Returning to France, he was one of the journalists who visited the Ayatollah Khomeini , before visiting Tehran. His articles expressed awe of Khomeini's Islamist movement, for which he

SECTION 10

#1732779533756

1308-498: A dislike to another staff member whom he considered stupid: Roger Garaudy , a senior figure in the Communist Party. Foucault made life at the university difficult for Garaudy, leading the latter to transfer to Poitiers. Foucault also caused controversy by securing a university job for his lover, the philosopher Daniel Defert , with whom he retained a non-monogamous relationship for the rest of his life. Foucault maintained

1417-594: A flat with his brother, who was training to become a surgeon, but for three days in the week commuted to the northern town of Lille , teaching psychology at the Université de Lille from 1953 to 1954. Many of his students liked his lecturing style. Meanwhile, he continued working on his thesis, visiting the Bibliothèque Nationale every day to read the work of psychologists such as Ivan Pavlov , Jean Piaget and Karl Jaspers . Undertaking research at

1526-535: A half years. It made a real impression. I was present for large, violent student riots that preceded by several weeks what happened in May in France. This was March 1968. The unrest lasted a whole year: strikes, courses suspended, arrests. And in March, a general strike by the students. The police came into the university, beat up the students, wounded several of them seriously, and started making arrests ... I have to say that I

1635-493: A high-rise block on the rue du Dr Finlay. Responsible for teaching psychology, which was subsumed within the philosophy department, he was considered a "fascinating" but "rather traditional" teacher at Clermont. The department was run by Jules Vuillemin , who soon developed a friendship with Foucault. Foucault then took Vuillemin's job when the latter was elected to the Collège de France in 1962. In this position, Foucault took

1744-427: A keen interest in literature, publishing reviews in literary journals, including Tel Quel and Nouvelle Revue Française , and sitting on the editorial board of Critique , In May 1963, he published a book devoted to poet, novelist, and playwright Raymond Roussel . It was written in under two months, published by Gallimard, and was described by biographer David Macey as "a very personal book" that resulted from

1853-457: A mutual interest in the work of such authors as the Marquis de Sade , Fyodor Dostoyevsky , Franz Kafka and Jean Genet , all of whose works explored the themes of sex and violence. I belong to that generation who, as students, had before their eyes, and were limited by, a horizon consisting of Marxism, phenomenology and existentialism. For me the break was first Beckett's Waiting for Godot ,

1962-413: A new series of academic books, known as Des travaux ( Some Works ), through the company Seuil , which he hoped would improve the state of academic research in France. He also produced introductions for the memoirs of Herculine Barbin and My Secret Life . Foucault's Histoire de la sexualité concentrates on the relation between truth and sex. He defines truth as a system of ordered procedures for

2071-908: A number of short books. Working at the Collège allowed him to travel widely, giving lectures in Brazil, Japan, Canada, and the United States over the next 14 years. In 1970 and 1972, Foucault served as a professor in the French Department of the University at Buffalo in Buffalo, New York. In May 1971, Foucault co-founded the Groupe d'Information sur les Prisons (GIP) along with historian Pierre Vidal-Naquet and journalist Jean-Marie Domenach . The GIP aimed to investigate and expose poor conditions in prisons and give prisoners and ex-prisoners

2180-631: A particular way of looking at the body: the 'medical gaze '. Foucault was also selected to be among the "Eighteen Man Commission" that assembled between November 1963 and March 1964 to discuss university reforms that were to be implemented by Christian Fouchet , the Gaullist Minister of National Education . Implemented in 1967, they brought staff strikes and student protests. In April 1966, Gallimard published Foucault's Les Mots et les choses  [ fr ] (Words and Things), later translated as The Order of Things : An Archaeology of

2289-622: A preference for "Michel" throughout his life. His father, a successful local surgeon born in Fontainebleau , moved to Poitiers , where he set up his own practice. He married Anne Malapert, the daughter of prosperous surgeon Dr. Prosper Malapert, who owned a private practice and taught anatomy at the University of Poitiers' School of Medicine. Paul Foucault eventually took over his father-in-law's medical practice, while Anne took charge of their large mid-19th-century house, Le Piroir, in

SECTION 20

#1732779533756

2398-575: A quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore ', and his learning is not always worn lightly. In West Germany, Foucault completed in 1960 his primary thesis ( thèse principale ) for his State doctorate , titled Folie et déraison: Histoire de la folie à l'âge classique (trans. "Madness and Insanity: History of Madness in the Classical Age"), a philosophical work based upon his studies into the history of medicine . The book discussed how West European society had dealt with madness , arguing that it

2507-416: A relationship with a transvestite . Histoire de la folie is not an easy text to read, and it defies attempts to summarise its contents. Foucault refers to a bewildering variety of sources, ranging from well-known authors such as Erasmus and Molière to archival documents and forgotten figures in the history of medicine and psychiatry. His erudition derives from years pondering, to cite Poe , ' over many

2616-611: A short book exploring what Foucault called the "repressive hypothesis". It revolved largely around the concept of power, rejecting both Marxist and Freudian theory. Foucault intended it as the first in a seven-volume exploration of the subject. Histoire de la sexualité was a best-seller in France and gained positive press, but lukewarm intellectual interest, something that upset Foucault, who felt that many misunderstood his hypothesis. He soon became dissatisfied with Gallimard after being offended by senior staff member Pierre Nora . Along with Paul Veyne and François Wahl , Foucault launched

2725-576: A speech denouncing police provocation to protesters at the Maison de la Mutualité . Such actions marked Foucault's embrace of the ultra-left, undoubtedly influenced by Defert, who had gained a job at Vincennes' sociology department and who had become a Maoist . Most of the courses at Foucault's philosophy department were Marxist–Leninist oriented, although Foucault himself gave courses on Nietzsche, "The end of Metaphysics", and "The Discourse of Sexuality", which were highly popular and over-subscribed. While

2834-581: A speech using excerpts from The History of Sexuality . His body was then buried at Vendeuvre-du-Poitou in a small ceremony. Soon after his death, Foucault's partner Daniel Defert founded the first national HIV/AIDS organisation in France, AIDES ; a play on the French word for "help" ( aide ) and the English- language acronym for the disease. On the second anniversary of Foucault's death, Defert publicly revealed in The Advocate that Foucault's death

2943-539: A study of history. I wasn't always smart, I was actually very stupid in school ... [T]here was a boy who was very attractive who was even stupider than I was. And to ingratiate myself with this boy who was very beautiful, I began to do his homework for him—and that's how I became smart, I had to do all this work to just keep ahead of him a little bit, to help him. In a sense, all the rest of my life I've been trying to do intellectual things that would attract beautiful boys. In autumn 1946, attaining excellent results, Foucault

3052-414: A surprise bestseller in France. Appearing at the height of interest in structuralism , Foucault was quickly grouped with scholars such as Jacques Lacan , Claude Lévi-Strauss , and Roland Barthes , as the latest wave of thinkers set to topple the existentialism popularized by Jean-Paul Sartre . Although initially accepting this description, Foucault soon vehemently rejected it, because he "never posited

3161-552: A universal theory of discourse, but rather sought to describe the historical forms taken by discoursive practices". Foucault and Sartre regularly criticised one another in the press. Both Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir attacked Foucault's ideas as " bourgeois ", while Foucault retaliated against their Marxist beliefs by proclaiming that "Marxism exists in nineteenth-century thought as a fish exists in water; that is, it ceases to breathe anywhere else." I lived [in Tunisia] for two and

3270-600: A voice in French society. It was highly critical of the penal system, believing that it converted petty criminals into hardened delinquents. The GIP gave press conferences and staged protests surrounding the events of the Toul prison riot in December 1971, alongside other prison riots that it sparked off; in doing so it faced a police crackdown and repeated arrests. The group became active across France, with 2,000 to 3,000, members, but disbanded before 1974. Also campaigning against

3379-567: A well-prepared music program: Richard Strauss 's Four Last Songs , followed by Charles Ives 's Three Places in New England , ending with a few avant-garde pieces by Stockhausen . According to Wade, as soon as he came back to Paris, Foucault scrapped the second The History of Sexuality ' s manuscript, and totally rethought the whole project. In 1976, Gallimard published Foucault's Histoire de la sexualité: la volonté de savoir ( The History of Sexuality: The Will to Knowledge ),

Zabriskie Point - Misplaced Pages Continue

3488-470: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault ( UK : / ˈ f uː k oʊ / FOO -koh , US : / f uː ˈ k oʊ / foo- KOH ; French: [pɔl miʃɛl fuko] ; 15 October 1926 – 25 June 1984) was a French historian of ideas and philosopher who was also an author, literary critic , political activist , and teacher. Foucault's theories primarily addressed

3597-492: Is committed to rise up against every abuse of power, no matter who the author, no matter who the victims. After all, we are all ruled, and as such, we are in solidarity. Foucault remained a political activist, focusing on protesting government abuses of human rights around the world. He was a key player in the 1975 protests against the Spanish government who were set to execute 11 militants sentenced to death without fair trial. It

3706-601: The Black Mountains form distinct sections. Many of Death Valley National Park 's most well-known features, such as Zabriskie Point and Artists Drive are located in or are part of the Amargosa Range. The Amargosa mountains are also home to Corkscrew Peak , so named because it resembles a corkscrew. This Inyo County, California -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Nye County , Nevada state location article

3815-471: The California Gold Rush of 1849.) The primary source of borate minerals gathered from Death Valley's playas is Furnace Creek Formation. The Formation is made up of over 5000 feet (1500 m) of mudstone, siltstone, and conglomerate. The borates were concentrated in these lakebeds from hot spring waters and altered rhyolite from nearby volcanic fields. Zabriskie Point is also the title of

3924-662: The Pacific Coast Borax Company in the early 20th century. The company's twenty-mule teams were used to transport borax from its mining operations in Death Valley. Millions of years prior to the actual sinking and widening of Death Valley and the existence of Lake Manly (see Geology of the Death Valley area ), another lake covered a large portion of Death Valley including the area around Zabriskie Point. This ancient lake began forming approximately nine million years ago. During several million years of

4033-753: The Socialist Party government of François Mitterrand following its electoral victory in 1981 . But his support soon deteriorated when that party refused to condemn the Polish government's crackdown on the 1982 demonstrations in Poland orchestrated by the Solidarity trade union. He and sociologist Pierre Bourdieu authored a document condemning Mitterrand's inaction that was published in Libération , and they also took part in large public protests on

4142-568: The Soviet Union , and thought that the system ran "badly". Considering the university a liberal enclave, he traveled the country giving lectures; proving popular, he adopted the position of de facto cultural attaché. Like France and Sweden, Poland legally tolerated but socially frowned on homosexual activity, and Foucault undertook relationships with a number of men; one was with a Polish security agent who hoped to trap Foucault in an embarrassing situation, which therefore would reflect badly on

4251-404: The University of Clermont-Ferrand , he produced The Birth of the Clinic (1963) and The Order of Things (1966), publications that displayed his increasing involvement with structuralism, from which he later distanced himself. These first three histories exemplified a historiographical technique Foucault was developing, which he called "archaeology". From 1966 to 1968, Foucault lectured at

4360-681: The University of Tunis before returning to France, where he became head of the philosophy department at the new experimental university of Paris VIII . Foucault subsequently published The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969). In 1970, Foucault was admitted to the Collège de France , a membership he retained until his death. He also became active in several left-wing groups involved in campaigns against racism and other violations of human rights , focusing on struggles such as penal reform . Foucault later published Discipline and Punish (1975) and The History of Sexuality (1976), in which he developed archaeological and genealogical methods that emphasized

4469-538: The University of Warsaw 's Centre Français. Foucault found life in Poland difficult due to the lack of material goods and services following the destruction of the Second World War. Witnessing the aftermath of the Polish October of 1956, when students had protested against the governing communist Polish United Workers' Party , he felt that most Poles despised their government as a puppet regime of

Zabriskie Point - Misplaced Pages Continue

4578-442: The terminale , where he focused on the study of philosophy, earning his baccalauréat in 1943. Returning to the local Lycée Henry-IV, he studied history and philosophy for a year, aided by a personal tutor, the philosopher Louis Girard  [ fr ] . Rejecting his father's wishes that he become a surgeon, in 1945 Foucault went to Paris, where he enrolled in one of the country's most prestigious secondary schools, which

4687-435: The "vertigo of madness". In Uppsala, Foucault spent much of his spare time in the university's Carolina Rediviva library, making use of their Bibliotheca Walleriana collection of texts on the history of medicine for his ongoing research. Finishing his doctoral thesis, Foucault hoped that Uppsala University would accept it, but Sten Lindroth , a positivistic historian of science there, remained unimpressed, asserting that it

4796-496: The Age of Reason . Folie et déraison received a mixed reception in France and in foreign journals focusing on French affairs. Although it was critically acclaimed by Maurice Blanchot , Michel Serres , Roland Barthes , Gaston Bachelard , and Fernand Braudel , it was largely ignored by the leftist press, much to Foucault's disappointment. It was notably criticised for advocating metaphysics by young philosopher Jacques Derrida in

4905-653: The French embassy. Wracked in diplomatic scandal, he was ordered to leave Poland for a new destination. Various positions were available in West Germany , and so Foucault relocated to the Institut français Hamburg  [ de ] (where he served as director in 1958–1960), teaching the same courses he had given in Uppsala and Warsaw. Spending much time in the Reeperbahn red-light district , he entered into

5014-498: The Human Sciences . Exploring how man came to be an object of knowledge, it argued that all periods of history have possessed certain underlying conditions of truth that constituted what was acceptable as scientific discourse. Foucault argues that these conditions of discourse have changed over time, from one period's épistémè to another. Although designed for a specialist audience, the work gained media attention, becoming

5123-615: The Maison de France, thus opening the possibility of a cultural-diplomatic career. Although finding it difficult to adjust to the "Nordic gloom" and long winters, he developed close friendships with two Frenchmen, biochemist Jean-François Miquel and physicist Jacques Papet-Lépine, and entered into romantic and sexual relationships with various men. In Uppsala he became known for his heavy alcohol consumption and reckless driving in his new Jaguar car . In spring 1956 Barraqué broke from his relationship with Foucault, announcing that he wanted to leave

5232-597: The Parisian avant-garde , Foucault entered into a romantic relationship with the serialist composer Jean Barraqué . Together, they tried to produce their greatest work, heavily used recreational drugs and engaged in sado-masochistic sexual activity. In August 1953, Foucault and Barraqué holidayed in Italy, where the philosopher immersed himself in Untimely Meditations (1873–1876), a set of four essays by

5341-572: The Parisian Rue d'Ulm. He remained largely unpopular, spending much time alone, reading voraciously. His fellow students noted his love of violence and the macabre; he decorated his bedroom with images of torture and war drawn during the Napoleonic Wars by Spanish artist Francisco Goya , and on one occasion chased a classmate with a dagger. Prone to self-harm , in 1948 Foucault allegedly attempted suicide ; his father sent him to see

5450-772: The Philosophy Department. Becoming a tenured professor of Vincennes, Foucault's desire was to obtain "the best in French philosophy today" for his department, employing Michel Serres , Judith Miller , Alain Badiou , Jacques Rancière , François Regnault , Henri Weber , Étienne Balibar , and François Châtelet ; most of them were Marxists or ultra-left activists. Lectures began at the university in January 1969, and straight away its students and staff, including Foucault, were involved in occupations and clashes with police, resulting in arrests. In February, Foucault gave

5559-583: The Rue de Vaugirard. After the May 1968 student protests, Minister of Education Edgar Faure responded by founding new universities with greater autonomy. Most prominent of these was the Centre Expérimental de Vincennes in Vincennes on the outskirts of Paris. A group of prominent academics were asked to select teachers to run the centre's departments, and Canguilheim recommended Foucault as head of

SECTION 50

#1732779533756

5668-735: The Second World War began, followed by Nazi Germany 's occupation of France in 1940. Foucault's parents opposed the occupation and the Vichy regime , but did not join the Resistance . That year, Foucault's mother enrolled him in the Collège Saint-Stanislas , a strict Catholic institution run by the Jesuits . Although he later described his years there as an "ordeal", Foucault excelled academically, particularly in philosophy, history, and literature. In 1942 he entered his final year,

5777-466: The agitation. He hid their printing press in his garden, and tried to testify on their behalf at their trials, but was prevented when the trials became closed-door events. While in Tunis, Foucault continued to write. Inspired by a correspondence with the surrealist artist René Magritte , Foucault started to write a book about the impressionist artist Édouard Manet , but never completed it. In 1968, Foucault returned to Paris, moving into an apartment on

5886-402: The bigotry that he experienced within the party's ranks; he personally faced homophobia and was appalled by the anti-semitism exhibited during the 1952–53 " Doctors' plot " in the Soviet Union . He left the Communist Party in 1953, but remained Althusser's friend and defender for the rest of his life. Although failing at the first attempt in 1950, he passed his agrégation in philosophy on

5995-416: The changes that the medical establishment underwent in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Like his preceding work, Naissance de la Clinique was largely critically ignored, but later gained a cult following. It was of interest within the field of medical ethics , as it considered the ways in which the history of medicine and hospitals, and the training that those working within them receive, bring about

6104-608: The country as part of his national service . Foucault moved a few kilometres from Tunis , to the village of Sidi Bou Saïd , where fellow academic Gérard Deledalle lived with his wife. Soon after his arrival, Foucault announced that Tunisia was "blessed by history", a nation which "deserves to live forever because it was where Hannibal and St. Augustine lived". His lectures at the university proved very popular, and were well attended. Although many young students were enthusiastic about his teaching, they were critical of what they believed to be his right-wing political views, viewing him as

6213-471: The death penalty, Foucault co-authored a short book on the case of the convicted murderer Pierre Rivière. After his research into the penal system, Foucault published Surveiller et punir: Naissance de la prison ( Discipline and Punish : The Birth of the Prison ) in 1975, offering a history of the system in western Europe. In it, Foucault examines the penal evolution away from corporal and capital punishment to

6322-441: The deaths of both Defert (in 2023) and Foucault (in 1984). Paul-Michel Foucault was born on 15 October 1926 in the city of Poitiers , west-central France, as the second of three children in a prosperous, socially conservative , upper-middle-class family. Family tradition prescribed naming him after his father, Paul Foucault (1893–1959), but his mother insisted on the addition of Michel; referred to as Paul at school, he expressed

6431-510: The gay press, describing it as "the real creation of new possibilities of pleasure, which people had no idea about previously". Foucault contracted HIV and eventually developed AIDS . Little was known of the virus at the time; the first cases had only been identified in 1980. Foucault initially referred to AIDS as a "dreamed-up disease". In summer 1983, he developed a persistent dry cough, which concerned friends in Paris, but Foucault insisted it

6540-543: The heightened curiosity regarding sexuality that induced a "world of perversion" during the elite, capitalist 18th and 19th century in the western world. According to Foucault in History of Sexuality , society of the modern age is symbolized by the conception of sexual discourses and their union with the system of truth. In the "world of perversion", including extramarital affairs, homosexual behavior, and other such sexual promiscuities, Foucault concludes that sexual relations of

6649-468: The hospital on 25 June. On 26 June 1984, Libération announced Foucault's death, mentioning the rumour that it had been brought on by AIDS. The following day, Le Monde issued a medical bulletin cleared by his family that made no reference to HIV/AIDS. On 29 June, Foucault's la levée du corps ceremony was held, in which the coffin was carried from the hospital morgue. Hundreds attended, including activists and academic friends, while Gilles Deleuze gave

SECTION 60

#1732779533756

6758-599: The issue. Foucault continued to support Solidarity, and with his friend Simone Signoret traveled to Poland as part of a Médecins du Monde expedition, taking time out to visit the Auschwitz concentration camp . He continued his academic research, and in June 1984 Gallimard published the second and third volumes of Histoire de la sexualité . Volume two, L'Usage des plaisirs , dealt with the "techniques of self" prescribed by ancient Greek pagan morality in relation to sexual ethics, while volume three, Le Souci de soi , explored

6867-635: The journalist Claude Mauriac , and one of his literary heroes, Jean Genet. This campaign was formalised as the Committee for the Defence of the Rights of Immigrants, but there was tension at their meetings as Foucault opposed the anti-Israeli sentiment of many Arab workers and Maoist activists. At a December 1972 protest against the police killing of Algerian worker Mohammad Diab, both Foucault and Genet were arrested, resulting in widespread publicity. Foucault

6976-521: The kind are constructed around producing the truth. Sex became not only a means of pleasure, but an issue of truth. Sex is what confines one to darkness, but also what brings one to light. Similarly, in The History of Sexuality , society validates and approves people based on how closely they fit the discursive mold of sexual truth. As Foucault reminds us, in the 18th and 19th centuries, the Church

7085-533: The lake's existence, sediments were collecting at the bottom in the form of saline muds , gravels from nearby mountains , and ashfalls from the then-active Black Mountain volcanic field . These sediments combined to form what we today call the Furnace Creek Formation. The climate along Furnace Creek Lake was dry, but not nearly as dry as in the present. Paracamelus , mastodons , wild horses , carnivores , and birds left tracks in

7194-405: The lakeshore muds, along with fossilized grass and reeds . Borates , which made up a large portion of Death Valley's historical past were concentrated in the lakebeds from hot spring waters and alteration of rhyolite in the nearby volcanic field. Weathering and alteration by thermal waters are also responsible for the variety of colors represented there. Regional mountain-building to

7303-456: The left in the panoramic photograph) is lava from eruptions that occurred three to five million years ago. This hard lava cap has retarded erosion in many places and possibly explains why Manly Beacon, the high outcrop to the right, is much higher than other portion of the badlands. (Manly Beacon was named in honor of William L. Manly , who along with John Rogers, guided members of the ill-fated party of Forty-niners out of Death Valley during

7412-421: The location of a top secret chemical and biological research station. Zabriskie Point was used as a film location for the 1960 Universal film Spartacus , showing Gladiator school boss Peter Ustinov on muleback trekking to an Egyptian mine to buy slaves to put in training. Shots taken from Zabriskie Point of Red Cathedral and Manly Beacon were used as the basis for shots that were then digitally altered to form

7521-512: The paper, but this proved untenable, and he soon became disillusioned with Libération , believing that it distorted the facts; he did not publish in it until 1980. In 1975 he had an LSD experience with Simeon Wade and Michael Stoneman in Death Valley , California, and later wrote "it was the greatest experience of his life, and that it profoundly changed his life and his work". In front of Zabriskie Point they took LSD while listening to

7630-557: The penitentiary system that began in Europe and the United States around the end of the 18th century. Biographer Didier Eribon described it as "perhaps the finest" of Foucault's works, and it was well received. Foucault was also active in anti-racist campaigns; in November 1971, he was a leading figure in protests following the perceived racist killing of Arab migrant Djellali Ben Ali. In this he worked alongside his old rival Sartre,

7739-725: The perimeter of the range, ending 282 feet (86 m) below sea level in the Badwater Basin . The mountain range is named after the Amargosa River, so-named for the Spanish word for bitter because of the bitter taste of the water. In order from north to south, the Grapevine Mountains (including the range's highest point, 8,738 feet (2,663 m) Grapevine Peak), the Funeral Mountains , and

7848-415: The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche . Later describing Nietzsche's work as "a revelation", he felt that reading the book deeply affected him, being a watershed moment in his life. Foucault subsequently experienced another groundbreaking self-revelation when watching a Parisian performance of Samuel Beckett 's new play, Waiting for Godot , in 1953. Interested in literature, Foucault was an avid reader of

7957-598: The philosopher Maurice Blanchot 's book reviews published in Nouvelle Revue Française . Enamoured of Blanchot's literary style and critical theories, in later works he adopted Blanchot's technique of "interviewing" himself. Foucault also came across Hermann Broch 's 1945 novel The Death of Virgil , a work that obsessed both him and Barraqué. While the latter attempted to convert the work into an epic opera , Foucault admired Broch's text for its portrayal of death as an affirmation of life. The couple took

8066-489: The planet of Arvala-7 in the first season of The Mandalorian . Amargosa Range The Amargosa Range is a mountain range in Inyo County, California , San Bernardino County, California and Nye County, Nevada . The 110-mile (180 km) range runs along most of the eastern side of California's Death Valley , separating it from Nevada's Amargosa Desert . The U-shaped Amargosa River flows clockwise around

8175-483: The prestigious Collège de France . He requested to join, taking up a chair in what he called the "history of systems of thought", and his request was championed by members Dumézil, Hyppolite, and Vuillemin. In November 1969, when an opening became available, Foucault was elected to the Collège, though with opposition by a large minority. He gave his inaugural lecture in December 1970, which was subsequently published as L'Ordre du discours ( The Discourse of Language ). He

8284-400: The production, distribution, regulation, circulation, and operation of statements. Through this system of truth, power structures are created and enforced. Though Foucault's definition of truth may differ from other sociologists before and after him, his work with truth in relation to power structures, such as sexuality, has left a profound mark on social science theory. In his work, he examines

8393-473: The psychiatric institute of the Sainte-Anne Hospital, he became an unofficial intern, studying the relationship between doctor and patient and aiding experiments in the electroencephalographic laboratory. Foucault adopted many of the theories of the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud , undertaking psychoanalytical interpretation of his dreams and making friends undergo Rorschach tests . Embracing

8502-483: The psychiatrist Jean Delay at the Sainte-Anne Hospital Center . Obsessed with the idea of self-mutilation and suicide, Foucault attempted the latter several times in ensuing years, praising suicide in later writings. The ENS's doctor examined Foucault's state of mind, suggesting that his suicidal tendencies emerged from the distress surrounding his homosexuality, because same-sex sexual activity

8611-548: The publications of philosopher Gaston Bachelard , taking a particular interest in his work exploring the history of science . He graduated from the ENS with a B.A. (licence) in Philosophy in 1948 and a DES ( diplôme d'études supérieures  [ fr ] , roughly equivalent to an M.A. ) in Philosophy in 1949. His DES thesis under the direction of Hyppolite was titled La Constitution d'un transcendental dans La Phénoménologie de l'esprit de Hegel ( The Constitution of

8720-925: The relationships between power versus knowledge and liberty , and he analyzed how they are used as a form of social control through multiple institutions. Though often cited as a structuralist and postmodernist , Foucault rejected these labels and sought to critique authority without limits on himself. His thought has influenced academics within a large number of contrasting areas of study, with this especially including those working in anthropology , communication studies , criminology , cultural studies , feminism , literary theory , psychology , and sociology . His efforts against homophobia and racial prejudice as well as against other ideological doctrines have also shaped research into critical theory and Marxism–Leninism alongside other topics. Born in Poitiers , France, into an upper-middle-class family, Foucault

8829-400: The right-wing press was heavily critical of this new institution, new Minister of Education Olivier Guichard was angered by its ideological bent and the lack of exams, with students being awarded degrees in a haphazard manner. He refused national accreditation of the department's degrees, resulting in a public rebuttal from Foucault. Foucault desired to leave Vincennes and become a fellow of

8938-486: The role that power plays in society. Foucault died in Paris from complications of HIV/AIDS . He became the first public figure in France to die from complications of the disease, with his charisma and career influence changing mass awareness of the pandemic . This occurrence influenced HIV/AIDS activism ; his partner, Daniel Defert , founded the AIDES charity in his memory. It continues to campaign as of 2024 despite

9047-736: The same theme in the Greek and Latin texts of the first two centuries CE. A fourth volume, Les Aveux de la chair , was to examine sexuality in early Christianity, but it was not finished. In October 1980, Foucault became a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley , giving the Howison Lectures on "Truth and Subjectivity", while in November he lectured at the Humanities Institute at New York University . His growing popularity in American intellectual circles

9156-486: The second try, in 1951. Excused from national service on medical grounds, he decided to start a doctorate at the Fondation Thiers in 1951, focusing on the philosophy of psychology, but he relinquished it after only one year in 1952. Foucault was also interested in psychology and he attended Daniel Lagache 's lectures at the University of Paris, where he obtained a B.A. (licence) in psychology in 1949 and

9265-506: The time. Foucault grew to despise it, unsuccessfully attempting to prevent its republication and translation into English. Foucault spent the next five years abroad, first in Sweden, working as cultural diplomat at the University of Uppsala , a job obtained through his acquaintance with historian of religion Georges Dumézil . At Uppsala he was appointed a Reader in French language and literature, while simultaneously working as director of

9374-517: The village of Vendeuvre-du-Poitou . Together the couple had three children—a girl named Francine and two boys, Paul-Michel and Denys—who all shared the same fair hair and bright blue eyes. The children were raised to be nominal Catholics, attending mass at the Church of Saint-Porchair, and while Michel briefly became an altar boy , none of the family was devout. Michel is not related to the physicist Léon Foucault . In later life, Foucault revealed very little about his childhood. Describing himself as

9483-402: The west influenced the climate to become more and more arid , causing the lake to dry up, and creating a dry lake . Subsequent widening and sinking of Death Valley and the additional uplift of today's Black Mountains tilted the area. This provided the necessary relief to accomplish the erosion that produced the badlands we see today. The dark-colored material capping the badland ridges (to

9592-405: The work of sociologists and anthropologists such as Émile Durkheim and Margaret Mead , he presented his theory that illness was culturally relative. Biographer James Miller noted that while the book exhibited "erudition and evident intelligence", it lacked the "kind of fire and flair" which Foucault exhibited in subsequent works. It was largely critically ignored, receiving only one review at

9701-405: The world" or "the heart laid bare", expressing the mind's deepest desires. That same year, Foucault published his first book, Maladie mentale et personalité ( Mental Illness and Personality ), in which he exhibited his influence from both Marxist and Heideggerian thought, covering a wide range of subject matter from the reflex psychology of Pavlov to the classic psychoanalysis of Freud. Referencing

9810-453: Was AIDS-related. Foucault's first biographer, Didier Eribon , described the philosopher as "a complex, many-sided character", and that "under one mask there is always another". He also noted that he exhibited an "enormous capacity for work". At the ENS, Foucault's classmates unanimously summed him up as a figure who was both "disconcerting and strange" and "a passionate worker". As he aged, his personality changed: Eribon noted that while he

9919-416: Was Foucault's old tutor and then-director of the ENS, Hyppolite, who was well acquainted with German philosophy. After both theses were championed and reviewed, he underwent his public defense of his doctoral thesis ( soutenance de thèse ) on 20 May 1961. The academics responsible for reviewing his work were concerned about the unconventional nature of his major thesis; reviewer Henri Gouhier noted that it

10028-579: Was a social construct distinct from mental illness . Foucault traces the evolution of the concept of madness through three phases: the Renaissance , the later 17th and 18th centuries, and the modern experience. The work alludes to the work of French poet and playwright Antonin Artaud , who exerted a strong influence over Foucault's thought at the time. Histoire de la folie was an expansive work, consisting of 943 pages of text, followed by appendices and

10137-460: Was a translation and commentary on German philosopher Immanuel Kant 's Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View (1798); the thesis was titled Introduction à l'Anthropologie . Largely consisting of Foucault's discussion of textual dating—an "archaeology of the Kantian text"—he rounded off the thesis with an evocation of Nietzsche, his biggest philosophical influence. This work's rapporteur

10246-418: Was admitted to the élite École Normale Supérieure (ENS), for which he undertook exams and an oral interrogation by Georges Canguilhem and Pierre-Maxime Schuhl to gain entry. Of the hundred students entering the ENS, Foucault ranked fourth based on his entry results, and encountered the highly competitive nature of the institution. Like most of his classmates, he lived in the school's communal dormitories on

10355-610: Was also involved in founding the Agence de Press-Libération (APL), a group of leftist journalists who intended to cover news stories neglected by the mainstream press. In 1973, they established the daily newspaper Libération , and Foucault suggested that they establish committees across France to collect news and distribute the paper, and advocated a column known as the "Chronicle of the Workers' Memory" to allow workers to express their opinions. Foucault wanted an active journalistic role in

10464-497: Was also known as the Lycée Henri-IV . Here he studied under the philosopher Jean Hyppolite , an existentialist and expert on the work of 19th-century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel . Hyppolite had devoted himself to uniting existentialist theories with the dialectical theories of Hegel and Karl Marx . These ideas influenced Foucault, who adopted Hyppolite's conviction that philosophy must develop through

10573-494: Was educated at the Lycée Henri-IV , at the École Normale Supérieure , where he developed an interest in philosophy and came under the influence of his tutors Jean Hyppolite and Louis Althusser , and at the University of Paris ( Sorbonne ), where he earned degrees in philosophy and psychology. After several years as a cultural diplomat abroad, he returned to France and published his first major book, The History of Madness (1961). After obtaining work between 1960 and 1966 at

10682-541: Was full of speculative generalisations and was a poor work of history; he refused to allow Foucault to be awarded a doctorate at Uppsala. In part because of this rejection, Foucault left Sweden. Later, Foucault admitted that the work was a first draft with certain lack of quality. Again at Dumézil's behest, in October 1958 Foucault arrived in the capital of the Polish People's Republic , Warsaw and took charge of

10791-600: Was his idea to travel to Madrid with six others to give a press conference there; they were subsequently arrested and deported back to Paris. In 1977, he protested the extradition of Klaus Croissant to West Germany, and his rib was fractured during clashes with riot police. In July that year, he organised an assembly of Eastern Bloc dissidents to mark the visit of Soviet general secretary Leonid Brezhnev to Paris. In 1979, he campaigned for Vietnamese political dissidents to be granted asylum in France. In 1977, Italian newspaper Corriere della sera asked Foucault to write

10900-460: Was just a pulmonary infection. Only when hospitalized was Foucault correctly diagnosed as being HIV-positive ; treated with antibiotics, he delivered a final set of lectures at the Collège de France. Foucault entered Paris' Hôpital de la Salpêtrière —the same institution that he had studied in Madness and Civilisation —on 10 June 1984, with neurological symptoms complicated by sepsis . He died in

11009-449: Was not a conventional work of history, making sweeping generalisations without sufficient particular argument, and that Foucault clearly "thinks in allegories". They all agreed however that the overall project was of merit, awarding Foucault his doctorate "despite reservations". In October 1960, Foucault took a tenured post in philosophy at the University of Clermont-Ferrand , commuting to the city every week from Paris, where he lived in

11118-475: Was noted by Time magazine, while Foucault went on to lecture at University of California, Los Angeles in 1981, the University of Vermont in 1982, and Berkeley again in 1983, where his lectures drew huge crowds. Foucault spent many evenings in the San Francisco gay scene , frequenting sado-masochistic bathhouses , engaging in unprotected sex. He praised sado-masochistic activity in interviews with

11227-457: Was obliged to give 12 weekly lectures a year—and did so for the rest of his life—covering the topics that he was researching at the time; these became "one of the events of Parisian intellectual life" and were repeatedly packed out events. On Mondays, he also gave seminars to a group of students; many of them became a "Foulcauldian tribe" who worked with him on his research. He enjoyed this teamwork and collective research, and together they published

11336-576: Was socially taboo in France. At the time, Foucault engaged in homosexual activity with men whom he encountered in the underground Parisian gay scene , also indulging in drug use; according to biographer James Miller , he enjoyed the thrill and sense of danger that these activities offered him. Although studying various subjects, Foucault soon gravitated towards philosophy, reading not only Hegel and Marx but also Immanuel Kant , Edmund Husserl and most significantly, Martin Heidegger . He began reading

11445-530: Was the epitome of power structure within society. Thus, many aligned their personal virtues with those of the Church, further internalizing their beliefs on the meaning of sex. However, those who unify their sexual relation to the truth become decreasingly obliged to share their internal views with those of the Church. They will no longer see the arrangement of societal norms as an effect of the Church's deep-seated power structure. There exists an international citizenry that has its rights, and has its duties, and that

11554-414: Was to find a publisher, and as a result Folie et déraison was published in French in May 1961 by the company Plon , whom Foucault chose over Presses Universitaires de France after being rejected by Gallimard . In 1964, a heavily abridged version was published as a mass market paperback, then translated into English for publication the following year as Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in

11663-465: Was tremendously impressed by those young men and women who took terrible risks by writing or distributing tracts or calling for strikes, the ones who really risked losing their freedom! It was a political experience for me. In September 1966, Foucault took a position teaching psychology at the University of Tunis in Tunisia. His decision to do so was largely because his lover, Defert, had been posted to

11772-578: Was used to represent the surface of Mars in the 1964 film Robinson Crusoe on Mars . Zabriskie Point is the name of Radio Massacre International 's album released in 2000. Zabriskie Point is a Soviet code for a location on the surface of the Moon in Omon Ra , a dystopian thriller novel by Victor Pelevin . Zabriskie Point is a significant location in the novels Fall of Night , Dust and Decay , and Fire and Ash by Jonathan Maberry , in each case, as

11881-620: Was widely criticised in the French press, including by Iranian expatriates. Foucault's response was that Islamism was to become a major political force in the region, and that the West must treat it with respect rather than hostility. In April 1978, Foucault traveled to Japan, where he studied Zen Buddhism under Omori Sogen at the Seionji temple in Uenohara . Although remaining critical of power relations, Foucault expressed cautious support for

#755244