Foucault para todos

Introducing Graphic Guides

by Chris Horrocks, Zoran Jevtić

Cuando Michel Foucault murió, en 1984, su obra fue considerada como «el acontecimiento más importante del pensamiento de nuestro siglo». Filósofo, historiador y activista político, en efecto Michel Foucault nos legó una obra imperecedera y de gran influencia. ¿Pero está de veras justificado semejante elogio? Foucault para todos sitúa su trabajo en su turbulento contexto político y filosófico, y explora desde una perspectiva crítica su empeño en desvelar los vínculos entre saber y poder en las ciencias humanas. Este libro explica en qué medida subvirtió Foucault nuestros supuestos sobre la experiencia y la percepción de la locura, la sexualidad y la criminalidad, así como las prácticas sociales, con frecuencia brutales, de confinamiento, confesión y castigo. Asimismo, describe el compromiso de Foucault con la psiquiatría y la medicina clínica, su activismo político y los aspectos transgresores del placer y el deseo que defendió en sus obras.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Biography, History, Theory, Graphic Novels, Sociology

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good introduction to this very complex thinker. This book gives you enough information so that you can look into the works of Foucault with a foundational understanding of his many themed works. I always try to read an introductory work like this before I try to tackle a new philosopher so that I can at least perceive their core perspective(s).

[Lit Bug (Foram) · Rating 3 out of 5]

New Review after re-read

This is a preliminary, superficial guide to Foucault, intended for those who are new to him and may not have the patience to drag through his dense theories. Covering his biography in brief with emphasis on turning points in his life, its effects on his formulation of theories and his spats with other theorists, the book provides a short overlook of his life.

The illustrations are often funny, eye-catching - but mostly , the entire book fails for me - the purpose of a graphic guide is to make difficult concepts seem easy and within even a layperson's grasp, made clear by pictures. The guide, instead, is overwhelming, and misses out the most important ideas of Foucault.

Even a cursory glance at Foucault under the GR Quotes gives a better idea of Foucault's ideologies than the entire book.

True, it reveals significant details about his life, but they are mostly unintelligible to people just beginning their foray into cultural studies. If I'd read this when I was a complete laywoman, I'd have dumped the book and rated it 1 star, because it fails its intention of Introducing Foucault. The prolific intertexuality of this guide makes it less focused on Foucault's important ideas.

If you're looking for a brief, graphic introduction to the Life of Foucault along with a cursory reference to all those systems and products of the system and products outside the system that influenced Foucault, it is useful. If you're looking for a lucid simplification of Foucault's ideas, don't even bother. Unless you've read the Wiki page and have read all of Foucault's quotes on GR.

[Amr Mohamed · Rating 1 out of 5]

الترجمة من اسوء ما يكون هي وطريقة عرض افكار فوكو وتاريخه
ده لو بيتكلم عن افكار توفيق عكاشة مكنش قالها بالطريقة ده
الواحد كان عارف معلومتين عن فوكو نسيهم الحمد الله بعض قراءة جزء بس من الكتاب

[Mon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Adequate material for bullshitting in theory discussion for a passing grade, just make sure you're not arguing against a Marxist and or feminist. The book is also surprisingly dismissive of Foucault in comparison to the rest of the Introduction series (*cough* Nietzsche). To be fair, as an architect, Foucault at least brought the concept of discourse in the realm of art and architecture after it got screwed up by Le Corbusier and the bunch of Modernists. Your choice of philosophers to quote (as an architect) is probably limited to Heidegger, Deleuze and Foucault, so be nice to the guy?

[Osama · Rating 3 out of 5]

كتاب مقدمة قصيرة عن الفيلسوف الفرنسي ميشيل فوكو. لا بأس به من حيث تقديم فكرة عامة عن حياة فوكو وأفكاره ومشاكله الكثيرة. والجميل في الكتاب دعم النص بالصور والرسوم.
تجدر الإشارة إلى أن الترجمة العربية للمجلس الأعلى للثقافة المصري سيئة جدا.

[Alex]

O carte-cartoon despre viata zbuciumata si opera filozofului francez Michel Foucault. O consider bine realizata din toate punctele de vedere. Avand in vedere ca am citit cateva din cartile lui, pot spune ca sunt bine rezumate, fiecare capitol mare din Madness&Civilisation, Discipline&Punish spre exemplu primeste o pagina-cartoon.
Termenii specifici lui Foucault sunt explicati (discurs, arheologie, epistema).

Una peste alta, il consider pe Foucault un personaj extrem de interesant, cred ca a fost o figura foarte polarizanta. A avut o viata zbuciumata din toate punctele de vedere.
Este pomenit dialogul cu Chomsky despre "natura umana" si unde ideile lui F.mie mi s-au parut extrem de pertinente. Sunt pertinente dar sunt si radicale si probabil de aceea greu de digerat (de exemplu ca termenul VIATA a inceput sa fie folosit mult mai abitir pentru a explica obiectul de studiu al biologiei).

Obsesia lui legata de putere poate fi criticata ca fiind de multe ori o teorie a conspiratiei sau o teorie de dragul teoriei insa eu zic ca are dreptate. Puterea este vizibila in regnul animal non-uman, si la nivel uman este vizibila atat in situatii zilnice uzuale cat si (acolo insa e evidenta) in politica, medicina, psihiatrie etc...

Mi se pare extrem de interesanta teoria lui despre adevar. De fapt nu e nimic nou, doar ca la Hegel e Zeitgeist si la Foucault epistema. In plus obsesia lui cu perioada sec.XVII-XVIII cand OMUL s-a indreptat spre OM, spre el insusi si OMUL a devenit obiectul de studiu, aparand toate stiintele UMANISTE. Apoi BIOPOWER.

Pe de alta parte am si critici:
- stilul de scriere uneori elucubrant si extrem de complicat (sau o fi traducerea in engleza...)
- cartea despre MEDICINA este totusi scrisa de un filozof care nu are nici o legatura cu MEDICINA si nu o stie decat din carti. Poate ar fi trebuit sa nu se bage.
- atat MADNESS & CIVILISATION cat si BIRTH OF A CLINIC sunt o panoplie plictisitoare de descrieri medicale care nu mai au nici o relevanta acum si care parca dau senzatia ca ar fi vrut sa faca parada cu cat citise despre subiectele respective. Scuzabil pana la urma...

Una peste alta, daca vrei sa afli despre Muzil (cum este numit in geniala carte a lui Hervé Guibert - A L'AMI QUI NE M'A PAS SAUVE LA VIE - ROMAN - carte din care am aflat despre Foucault si unde sunt descrise ultimele sale luni-zile), cartea de fata este exceptionala. De asemenea recomand cartea lui Guibert.

Nu dau stele ca nu stiu cate sa ii dau.

[Corbin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am normally quite a fan of the Introducing... series, but this is the worst one I have read. It relied on previous familiarity with some of the thinker's work, vocabulary, and sometimes even biography. Too often it referred to Foucault's context without actually explaining it. And usually the illustrations are helpful, but I found only about half of the pages' drawings to add to the presentation. You will learn some things about Foucault and his work, but this better serves as a refresher than a primer.

Disclosure: I have read some Foucault and study quite a bit of "Continental" philosophy, and still found the text difficult to follow at times.

[Max · Rating 1 out of 5]

I still don’t get it

[Hamza Razzak · Rating 3 out of 5]

الكتاب عن حياة واعمال المفكر الفرنسي ميشيل فوكو الذي ادخل مفاهيم جديدة على عدة حقول معرفية كالتاريخ وعلم النفس والفلسفة. الا ان تركيز المؤلفين حول الجانب المظلم من حياة فوكو كونه مثلي الجنس اكثر من التركيز حول عرض ومناقشة رصينة للافكار التي تطرق اليها، قد ساهم في ترك فراغ معرفي حولها. لان حتى المحاولات التي بذلت في التطرق لافكاره كانت جد مقتضبة و من الصعب فهمها لغير من سبق له الاحتكاك باعماله.

لكن من جانب اخر، اعتقد ان التطرق لحياة فوكو الجنسية يلقي الضوء بوضوح عن نشاطه الفكري. فهي مما لا شك فيه قد أثرت كثيرا في خلفيته الفكرية، وبصفة خاصة في تاريخ الجنسانية.

على اي، يمكن ان يعتبر الكتاب مدخلا قصيرا لمسار فوكو الفكري والشخصي، وهو الذي تضاربت حوله ولاتزال اراء العديد من المفكرين والفلاسفة!

[Castles · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting, yet a little too gossipy.

[Jasmine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am rating myself 2 stars not this book. Hear me: I FAILED THIS BOOK THIS BOOK DID NOT FAIL ME.


in reality a long long time ago: I FAILED FOUCAULT HE DID NOT FAIL ME

and back in those days when I was failing foucault I assume I bought this to cease my failure, and well it didn't work I read this and I still have no idea what the fuck he's on about.

back in college I read a lot of philosophers, that is how you go about getting a philosophy degree, and some things (e.g the economic and philosophical manuscripts, being and time) took 20 minutes a page and multiple rereadings and all nighters, but I came out of it all smarter and with a deeper understanding of these authors.

well I took a 9 week class just on discipline and punish and the only thing I can tell you about it is the first chapter makes me fucking nauseous. I never got it it's the only class I went to office hours for and neither myself or the teacher could understand why I just couldn't figure it out no matter how hard I tried. I never had this experience with another philosopher then or since then (I had it with moby dick when I was like 11 but I tried again in high school and didn't feel that way anymore). So I don't know. I have a foucault block and chris horrocks couldn't solve it.

[Danger Kallisti · Rating 5 out of 5]

An odd little punk rock collage-comic of a philosophy book:

This was an accidental find for me. I was looking up some "serious" philosophy for a discussion with a friend, and the bright colors and goofy cover struck me as... unusual, to say the least.
In the long run, it was definitely worth my time; in the way of truly intelligent things, it managed to be a lot more informative and complex than I initially expected. Not only did it give a clear and concise overview of Foucault, but it referred to at least a dozen other thinkers and artists, and explained how they had influenced and been influenced by Foucault.
I also particularly appreciated the way it didn’t fuck around or hide from questionable material. I like a book that’s equally ready to explain epistemes or leathersex.
I just hope that, somewhere out there, Philosophy professors are using this book in curriculum. It’s the kind of thing that would get even the densest student excited and thinking.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly good -- at the end.

The book was a little hard to follow in terms of all the theories it reviewed (it might be better to read the source documents to understand those), but it definitely gave a good sense of who Foucault was as a person. The "graphics" didn't add to much to the text (how do you illustrate complex philosophical ideas in pictures?), but made the subject much less dry. Plus, there were even a few textbook-y jokes in here! (I like those.)

The final chapter of this book is what made it great for me. A review of some of the criticisms of Foucault, and how his legacy has changed since his death -- now that he is no longer in control. I wonder what Foucault would have to say about all of that now?

It's interesting how people's interpretations of you can change so much once you're no longer around to contradict them.

[Hamêd · Rating 3 out of 5]

به عنوان مقدمه ای بر آراء ميشل فوکو و همچنین آگاهی از سیر زندگی او، تقریباً کتاب خوبی است. هرچند با این کتاب نمی توان عقاید او را به درستی درک کرد و فقط انگیزه ای ایجاد می کند برای خواندن سایر کتاب هایش و یا کتاب های سایرین درباره ی او.

از متن کتاب:

اگر فوکو بر این عقیده باشد که حقیقت و خرد صرفاً معلول قدرت اند، و هیچ پایه و اساسی در کار نیست - و آنچه هست گفتمان، دستگاه، نهادها و...است- بازنده میدان خود او خواهد بود، چراکه او می خواهد نظریاتش به عنوان نظریاتی حقیقی مورد پذیرش واقع شوند. چگونه می شود که فوکو حقیقت داشته باشد و تاریخ نه؟

فوکو یک موضوع ناممکن بود- مورخی غیرتاریخی، عالمی در علوم انسانی که ضدانسانگرا بود، و یک ساختارگرای ضد ساختارگرا.
کلیفورد گیرتس - انسان شناس

[arafat · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was my toilet reading for about a month: I read it only when I was in the toilet. Like most of the "Introducing..." series, the book leaves you with more questions than answers. Which isn't so bad, really, coz then you have more of an incentive to pick up the primary texts themselves. And it's sometimes helpful to get a more casual intro before taking up a difficult author. I learned a few facts about Foucault that I did't know about before. Also, I enjoyed the humor in a few of the drawings.

[Karim Bazan · Rating 1 out of 5]

الترجمة في غاية السوء كما ان طريقة عرض المعلومات المبعثرة هنا و هناك اخلت بكثير من فكرة الكتاب الرئيسية الا وهي التعريف بفوكو و اهم افكاره
لا ينصح بقراءته ،فهو مضيعة للوقت دون التحصّل على شيء مرتب و ذا فائدة تستحق ّ

[Dorum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Foucault - The Nietzsche Wannabe.

Foucault philosophy didn't really age well in my opinion. Not as visionary as Nietzsche, not as rigorous as Wittgenstein. The book, nevertheless offers a passable introduction to his thought.

[Fernanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Do not ask me who I am and do not ask me to remain the same."

Great little intro. But Foucault's ideas are so complex and lengthy, the book does not do it justice.

The art is fun & I like the little notes on criticism Foucault was subjected to (and still is). The truth is he is ambiguous, ambivalent, super interesting, and so needed!

[Zenon Mesić · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring as fuck, shallow, not worth reading.

[Eric Glick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This made me want to read more Foucault. That's why I read it, so mission accomplished.

[Navin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was way too well researched for how unserious it is. Learned a lot tho

[Post Oogle Bohemianism · Rating 3 out of 5]

decent enough overview useful for grad student

[Tobi ﾄﾋﾞ · Rating 4 out of 5]

starting to slowly accept i’ll just never understand his philosophy, either that or i already do understand it and it’s just really gappy and he completely overlooked how he could apply his philosophy to be useful to real people.

foucaultism if he saw women as human people >>>>

this book was super fun though x

[Hestia Istiviani · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read Indonesian version and this review is written in Indonesian

Sudah pernah membaca buku sebentar namun terputus karena tergoda oleh buku yang lain. Pada akhirnya kembali membaca dari awal dan berhasil menghabiskannya karena penasaran dengan pemikiran-pemikiran Foucault akibat aku merasa tidak puas denga jawaban ujian yang aku berikan menyangkut teori Foucault. Tidak disangka, aku malah mampu menyelesaikan membaca kurang dari sehari!

Gaya Bahasa dan Kosa Kata
Seperti buku teks. Seperti buku teori ilmu sosial yang (mungkin) pernah kamu baca. Bahasanya begitu formal, agak kaku, dan penuh istilah dalam dunia keilmuan sosial serta filsafat. Jangan heran jika kamu tidak dapat mengerti tulisan dalam buku ini dengan sekali baca. Aku bahkan berusaha membacanya perlahan supaya dapat menangkap apa yang dimaksudkan baik oleh penulis buku dan pemikiran Foucault itu sendiri. Buku ini sebatas memindahkan apa yang ada dalam buku-buku ilmu sosial yang kaku tanpa ilustrasi dan gambar lucu menjadi bentuk yang agak tidak formal, meskipun sebagian besar bahasanya masih sulit dipahami oleh para pemula.

Tata Letak (Layout)
Sejumlah 174 halaman diisi dengan tulisan dan gambar ilustrasi menarik. Jangan salah, ilustrasinya malah membuat kita sedikit tertawa. Ada yang memang mendukung tulisan dalam halaman itu, ada pula yang seperti komik karikatur, tampaknya sedang mengejek salah satu tokoh (Foucault dikenal terlalu frontal sehingga beberapa tokoh pemikir posmodern lain tidak suka kepadanya).

Setiap halaman memiliki satu judul yang memudahkan pembaca untuk memahami apa inti dari tulisan tersebut. Setidaknya tidak terkesan membosankan apabila buku ini seperti buku bacaan lain. Pemilihan font face-nya menurutku juga cukup baik karena tidak terlihat kesan bahwa buku ini serius. Hanya bermain dengan warna hitam dan putih sehingga tidak mengganggu penglihatan ketika membaca.

Konten Buku
Untuk kata-kata "Mengenal....For Beginners" bagiku buku ini cukup berat untuk mereka yang benar-benar masih pemula. Tidak hanya menceritakan biografi Foucault saja, melainkan juga pemikiran dan hal-hal yang pernah Foucault lakukan semasa hidupya yang menjadikan dunia keilmuan dan filsafat menjadi geger. Kalau dinilai dari kelengkapannya, bagiku buku ini cukup lengkap karena bisa membahas beberapa hal utama dalam pemikirannya. Meski setiap topiknya diringkas sedemekian rupa, tapi sudah bisa dianggap informatif untuk sekedar mengetahui.Akan tetapi, karena cara penyamapaiannya yang bagiku tidak jauh beda dengan buku teks, aku rasa pembaca akan cepat bosan. Kecuali kalau pembaca sudah memiliki tekad dan rasa penasaran yang besar tentang tokoh ini.

---

Seperti yang aku tulis sebelumnya, jika kamu tidak memiliki rasa ingin tahu yang kuat terhadap Foucault, kamu akan berakhir sepertiku yang menyerah di halaman-halaman awal. For your information, buku ini sudah tidak ada di pasaran mengingat bahwa buku ini diterbitkan 16 tahun yang lalu. Aku tidak tahu apakah buku semacam ini masih menjadi koleksi perpustakaan atau tidak. Namun, apabila kamu sedang mengerjakan tugas kuliah dan butuh memahami Foucault dalam waktu semalam sebagai bahan tulisanmu, buku ini bisa membantu.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a beginning Foucault reader now. First he civilized madness, then he punished with discipline, then he died of AIDS. He started as a goldfish and (spoiler alert) ended as a goldfish.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

yeah fine cool i guess

had good explanations of foucaults theories and cool illustrations but also SO MUCH IRRELEVANT INFORMATION?????? like honestly u can skip the first 100 pages and miss nothing

also the conclusion???? not only do i completely disagree, the tone with which it's written is incredibly patronising...

[Salma · Rating 1 out of 5]

لم تعجبني الترجمة

[Asma Essa · Rating 1 out of 5]

ترجمة زفت وطريقة عرض سخيفة وغير مفهومة.

[محمد على عطية · Rating 1 out of 5]

Shit

[Mikey · Rating 4 out of 5]

LITERATURE in PUNK ROCK - Book #18-21

SONG: Our Retired Explorer (Dines with Michel Foucault in Paris, 1961) by the Weakerthans
https://youtu.be/D5taqbBYCys

BOOKS:
- Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
- The Cambridge Introduction to Michel Foucault
- Foucault for Beginners
- Introducing Foucault: Graphic Guide

---------------------------
Oct. 14th, 2003 - Epitaph Interview with John K Samson

Q: Again, on this record you use quite a bit of literary resources. How does this tie in to the songwriting?

Samson: Sometimes I just kind of go looking for inspiration somewhere. But, yeah, especially on this record specific books I thought about for a long time and then wrote about. But it's different every time; there's no formula.

Q: What's the deal with Shackleton?

Samson: (Laughter) I just really think he's an interesting figure; he was an Antarctic explorer at the turn of the last century. He's just really this interesting guy who explored Antarctica; so, I don't know, I think about him a lot. The idea was that "the retired explorer" would have been a member of one his expeditions in my mind when I think about that song. He was one of the grunts.

Q: And the whole "Dines with Michel Foucault"....

Samson: Yeah, it's kind of this idea of Modernism, and Foucault's very much a Post Modernist kind of philosopher, he's dead now... So, I thought of a clash between these two worlds would be really interesting; an interesting way to think about philosophy, life, and the way people try and understand each other, and sometimes they can't, but it doesn't really matter.
---------------------------

Our Retired Explorer sets up a meeting between French philosopher Michel Foucault and an unnamed member of Ernest Shackleton’s Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917.

The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917 was an infamous failed expedition to cross the Antarctic continent. This harrowing tail of survival and human endurance is chronicled in Alfred Lansing's "Endurance" (1959). The book details the ship's crash and the consequent two years in which the twenty-eight survivors traversed over 850 miles of sub-arctic seas towards civilization.

In 1961, Michel Foucault had just published his doctorate thesis, Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. This early Foucault work, his first major book, exams madness as social construct of Western European society distinct from the post-Enlightenment's evolved meaning as mental illness. The book presents both nascent structuralism and the emerging "archaeology of knowledge" methodology and histiography that formulates his later work.

As the Retired Explorer in the song responds: "I'm not entirely sure what you're talking about." A retired explorer of the 1914-17 expedition would have been about 70 years old in 1961. Many expedition survivors died in World War I. However, expedition physician Dr. Alexander Macklin lived until the late 1960s and spent much time assisting Alfred Lansing in writing Endurance (published two years before the song's supposed meeting).

The song doesn't stop with Shackleton and Foucault. In the song Michel Foucault gifts the mysterious Retired Explorer a book by French Philosopher Jacques Derrida. However, no such book exists. The notorious Deconstructionist Philosophy of Derrida did not arise until 1967. Prior to then, no significant texts exists outside of his translations of Edmund Husserl in 1962 (phenomenology, a concept Foucault opposed).

*Read February 22 - February 28