Michel Foucault's The Archaeology of Knowledge was published in March
1969; Discipline and Punish in February 1975. Although only six years
apart, the difference in tone is stark: the former is a methodological
treatise, the latter a call to arms. What accounts for the radical shift
in Foucault's approach?
Foucault's time in Tunisia had been a political awakening for him, and
he returned to a France much changed by the turmoil of 1968. He taught
at the experimental University of Vincennes and then moved to a
prestigious position at the Collège de France. He quickly became
involved in activist work concerning prisons and health issues such as
abortion rights, and in his seminars he built research teams to conduct
collaborative work, often around issues related to his lectures and
activism.
Foucault: The Birth of Power makes use of a range of archival
material, including newly available documents at the Bibliothèque
nationale de France, to provide a detailed intellectual history of
Foucault as writer, researcher, lecturer and activist. Through a careful
reconstruction of Foucault's work and preoccupations, Elden shows that,
while Discipline and Punish may be the major published output of this
period, it rests on a much wider range of concerns and projects.
