Course Syllabus

HSTCMP 509A: Foucault and History

Autumn 2018

Prof. Vicente Rafael, vrafael@uw.edu

Office: Smith 116A

In this seminar we will ask about the usefulness of Foucault for thinking about history and thinking historically. We will begin with the question of method, the politics and ethics of critique, and an overview of the relationship among power, knowledge and subjectivity in the context of modernity that undergirds Foucault’s writings. Much of our discussion will focus on a set of the lectures he gave on war, race, security, governmentality, biopolitics and the ethics of truth-telling in the care of the self from the 1970s at the College de France. Alongside the lectures, I would encourage you to take a look at a set of video lectures on Foucault’s lectures held at Columbia Univ., “MICHEL FOUCAULT’S COLLÈGE DE FRANCE LECTURES: 13 Years at the Collège, 13 Seminars at Columbia http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/foucault1313/

 

                                           Requirements include:

1. completing the assigned readings,

2. attending each class,

3. taking responsibility to lead at least one week’s discussion while providing a short commentary (2-3 pages max.) on the readings for that week for the class.

4. the majority of your grade will come from writing a research paper on a topic related to the course. If you are unable to come up with a paper topic, you also have the option to take a final exam. It will consist of a set of several questions, 2 or 3 on which you’ll be asked to write about.

Your papers will be due on Monday, Dec. 10, no later than 5:30pm by e-mail attachment to vrafael@uw.edu If you anticipate having any problems meeting this deadline, please contact me as soon as possible.

 

                           Required Texts (available at the U Bookstore):

Reading Packet available at the Canvas site for this class. https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1232703

Michel Foucault, On the Punitive Society: Lectures at the College de France, 1972-73, Palgrave, 2015

_________, Society Must be Defended: Lectures at the College de France, 1975-1976, Picador, 2003.

_________, Security, Territory, Population: Lectures at the College de France, 1977-1978, Picador, 2009.

_________, The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the College de France, 1978-1979, Picador, 2010.

_________, The Courage of Truth: Lectures at the College de France, 1983-84, Picador, 2012.

 

                                 Recommended Texts and Blogs:

Timothy Campbell and Adam Sitze, eds., Biopolitics: A Reader, Durham: Duke Univ. Press, 2013.

Paul Rabinow, ed., The Foucault Reader, New York: Pantheon, 1984. (selections on Canvas site).

MICHEL FOUCAULT’S COLLÈGE DE FRANCE LECTURES: 13 Years at the Collège, 13 Seminars at Columbia http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/foucault1313/

 

                                           Schedule of Classes:

Oct. 1: Introduction.

Read the following texts found on the Canvas site:

Michel Foucault, “What is an Author?” in Paul Rabinow, ed., The Foucault Reader, selection on Canvas site.

Michel Foucault, “Nietzsche, Genealogy, History,” in Rabinow, ed., The Foucault Reader, on Canvas site. ___________,

(with D. Trombadori), “Interview with Michel Foucault” on Canvas site.

_________, “The Subject and Power” in Canvas site.

 

Oct. 8: Michel Foucault, On the Punitive Society: Lectures at the College de France, 1972-73

Recommended:

Karl Marx, Capital, v.I, selections in Marx-Engels Reader, (various editions), ed. by Robert Tucker, 302-343 (on Canvas Reader).

Paul Rabinow, ed., The Foucault Reader, 169-256.

MICHEL FOUCAULT’S COLLÈGE DE FRANCE LECTURES: 13 Years at the Collège, 13 Seminars at Columbia http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/foucault1313/313-2/

 

Oct. 15: Michel Foucault, Society Must be Defended: Lectures at the College de France, 1975-1976.

Recommended:

MICHEL FOUCAULT’S COLLÈGE DE FRANCE LECTURES: 13 Years at the Collège, 13 Seminars at Columbia http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/foucault1313/613-2/

 

Oct. 22: Finish Society Must be Defended.

Achille Mbembe, “Necropolitics,” in Canvas site.

Start with Michel Foucault, Security, Population, Territory: Lectures at the College de France, 1977-1978.

 

Oct. 29: Continue with Security, Population, Territory

Recommended: MICHEL FOUCAULT’S COLLÈGE DE FRANCE LECTURES: 13 Years at the Collège, 13 Seminars at Columbia, http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/foucault1313/the-seventh-seminar/

 

Nov. 5: Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the College de France, 1978-1979.

Recommended: MICHEL FOUCAULT’S COLLÈGE DE FRANCE LECTURES: 13 Years at the Collège, 13 Seminars at Columbia, http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/foucault1313/the-eighth-seminar/

 

Nov. 12: No class. Veterans Day.

 

Nov. 19: Continue with Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the College de France, 1978-1979.

Wendy Brown, “Neo-liberalism and the End of Liberal Democarcy,” on Canvas Site.

Paul Rabinow, ed., The Foucault Reader, 257-290.

Recommended:

Timothy Campbell and Adam Sitze, Biopolitics: A Reader, see especially chapters 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13.

 

Nov. 26: Michel Foucault, The Courage of Truth: Lectures at the College de France, 1983-84

Recommended: Paul Rabinow, The Foucault Reader, 331-380.

MICHEL FOUCAULT’S COLLÈGE DE FRANCE LECTURES: 13 Years at the Collège, 13 Seminars at Columbia, http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/foucault1313/the-thirteenth-seminar/

 

Dec. 3: Catch-up Day.

 

Dec. 10: Final papers due, 5:20pm by e-mail: vrafael@uw.edu