In 1970, Foucault was admitted to the Collège de France, a membership he retained until his death. Foucault subsequently published The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969). These first three histories exemplified a historiographical technique Foucault was developing called 'archaeology'.įrom 1966 to 1968, Foucault lectured at the University of Tunis before returning to France, where he became head of the philosophy department at the new experimental university of Paris VIII. After obtaining work between 19 at 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.

After several years as a cultural diplomat abroad, he returned to France and published his first major book, The History of Madness (1961). His thought has influenced academics, especially those working in communication studies, anthropology, psychology, sociology, criminology, cultural studies, literary theory, feminism, Marxism and critical theory.īorn in Poitiers, France, into an upper-middle-class family, Foucault 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. Though often cited as a structuralist and postmodernist, Foucault rejected these labels.

Foucault's theories primarily address the relationships between power and knowledge, and how they are used as a form of social control through societal institutions.

Paul-Michel Foucault ( UK: / ˈ f uː k oʊ/, US: / f uː ˈ k oʊ/ French: 15 October 1926 – 25 June 1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic.

Learning to Fall by Anne Clermont