KSA W2014

Reading Foucault: The Anthropology of Knowledge, Power and Ethics

MA Seminar
Dr. Felix Ringel
Mondays 3-6pm

[MO 06.10.2014 15.00-16.30 Ort: Seminarraum A, NIG 4. Stock; MO 20.10.2014, 03.11.2014 und
17.11.2014 15.00-18.15 Ort: Seminarraum A, NIG 4. Stock; MO wtl von 01.12.2014 bis
19.01.2015 15.00-18.15 Ort: Seminarraum A, NIG 4. Stock]

Course Content: Michel Foucaults work whether endorsed or refuted has had major
impacts on all social sciences. His impact on Social and Cultural Anthropology can be
aligned with the rise of Science and Technology Studies and the general post-Writing
Culture tendency to follow Laura Naders 1972 urge to study up. However, in response,
both the social and the cultural were rigorously defended, not least by Marshall
Sahlins (in)famous booklet "Waiting for Foucault". This seminar will scrutinize
Foucaults oeuvre from an anthropological perspective. It will give much space and
attention to reading and discussing monographs and lectures from all of his working
periods. The seminar wants to contrast this reading with prominent anthropological
perceptions of Foucault's work by scholars such as Nikolas Rose, Paul Rabinow and Saba
Mahmood. Students will be encouraged to critically engage with Foucaults thought and
influence, thoroughly investigating the fundamental theoretical as much as analytical
and methodological issues of power, freedom, knowledge, subjectivity, governmentality
and ethics.
Aim of the Course: Students will familiarise themselves with Foucault's work and his
impact on Social and Cultural Anthropology. This extended inquiry into one school of
thought will strengthen their broader theoretical, analytical and methodological
insights. It is hoped that students can use their acquired knowledge for their future
academic work.
Reading List (all texts are to be found on moodle)
1) 06. Oct. 2014

Introduction

2) 20. Oct. 2014

Archaeology of Knowledge I / Knowledge

The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences [1966]

(Preface; Part I 1, 2; Part II 9, 10)

3) 03. Nov. 2014

Archaeology of Knowledge II / Power/Knowledge

Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason [1961]

(Chs. 1-3, 8-9 and Conclusion)
1

4) 17. Nov 2014

Genealogies of Power

Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison [1975] (Part I, Ch. 1; Part III 1&3; IV 1&3)
Society must be Defended (Lectures at the Collge de France) [1975-1976] (Lectures I &
XI)

5) 01. Dec. 2014

History of Sexuality I / Sexuality

The History of Sexuality Volume I: An Introduction [The Will to Know] [1976]

6) 15. Dec. 2014

History of Sexuality II / Ethics

The History of Sexuality Volume II: The Use of Pleasures

(Introduction; Parts IV & V,
Conclusion)
The History of Sexuality Volume III: The Care of the Self
(Parts II, III & IV, Conclusion)

7) 12. Jan. 2015

Anthropology and Foucault I

Saba Mahmood 2004 Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject
Princeton: Princeton University Press. (Chs. 1, 2, 5, Epilogue)
OR
Nikolas Rose 2007 The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Power, and Subjectivity in the
Twenty-First Century Princeton: Princeton University Press. (Chs. 1-5, Afterword)

8) 19. Jan. 2015

Anthropology and Foucault II

Paul Rabinow 2003 Anthropos Today: Reflections on Modern Equipment Princeton:

Princeton University Press.
OR
Paul Rabinow 2008 Marking Time: On the Anthropology of the Contemporary Princeton:
Princeton University Press.