Category Archives: Michel Foucault

Trevor Pateman on Barthes as a teacher, and attending classes by Foucault, Derrida, Lévi-Strauss and Jakobson

Posted on February 18, 2026 by stuartelden

A very interesting short piece about spending the 1971-72 academic year in Paris – Trevor Pateman, “Roland Barthes: Writer, Intellectual, and also Professor”, Barthes Studies, 2025 (open access). It briefly mentions Foucault: But Barthes’ preferences were very similar to Foucault’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Claude Lévi-Strauss, Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan, Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes, Roman Jakobson | Leave a comment

Foucault’s 17 May 1979 Collège de France seminar with Paul Veyne published

Posted on February 17, 2026 by stuartelden

“Séminaire de Michel Foucault du 17 mai 1979 au Collège de France“, Raisons politiques 100, 2025, 15-52 This is very interesting – a seminar discussing Paul Veyne’s “Foucault révolutionne l’histoire”. A presentation by Veyne, response by Foucault and contributions by … Continue reading →

Posted in Michel Foucault, Paul Veyne, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Umberto Eco, Philosophers, Mythologists and Linguists

Posted on February 15, 2026 by stuartelden

19 February 2026 marks the 10th anniversary of the death of Umberto Eco. I only heard Eco speak once, at a book reading in October 1995 for The Island of the Day Before. Mario Vargas Llosa was the other scheduled speaker, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Claude Lévi-Strauss, Emile Benveniste, Georges Canguilhem, Georges Dumézil, Italo Calvino, Jacques Lacan, Louis Althusser, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes, Roman Jakobson, Sunday Histories, The Archaeology of Foucault, Umberto Eco, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Indo-European Thought in Twentieth-Century France update 31 – Paris archives, library problems, and working towards a complete draft

Posted on February 12, 2026 by stuartelden

The draft of the Mapping Indo-European Thought manuscript is slowly coming together. I’ve just begun a Fernand Braudel fellowship at the European University Institute in Florence. My plan was to come here with a complete draft, and to leave with a better … Continue reading →

Posted in Claude Lévi-Strauss, Clémence Ramnoux, Emile Benveniste, Felix Guattari, Georges Dumézil, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan, Julia Kristeva, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Marcel Detienne, Michel Foucault, Mircea Eliade, Roland Barthes, Sunday Histories, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The differences between the article and book versions of Jacques Derrida’s “Cogito and the History of Madness”

Posted on February 9, 2026 by stuartelden

There are lots of small changes made by Jacques Derrida to his critique of Foucault between the 1963 article “Cogito et histoire de la folie” and its republication in the 1967 book L’écriture et la différence, translated by Alan Bass as Writing and Difference. As … Continue reading →

Posted in Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Sunday Histories, The Archaeology of Foucault, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Foucault and his Critics – two minor notes on his exchanges with Jacques Derrida and J.M. Pelorson

Posted on February 8, 2026 by stuartelden

Two small things I’ve found or noticed recently which shed a little light on Foucault’s engagement with his critics. 1. Jacques Derrida I have discussed the Derrida-Foucault debate about Foucault’s History of Madness before, most fully in The Archaeology of Foucault (pp. 16-21). I’m … Continue reading →

Posted in Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Sunday Histories, The Archaeology of Foucault | 3 Comments

Clémence Ramnoux – Mythology, Psychology, Philosophy

Posted on January 11, 2026 by stuartelden

Clémence Ramnoux (1905-1997) was an important French scholar of ancient Greece. She worked mostly on the pre-Socratics, especially Heraclitus. Alongside Simone Pétrement she was one of the first two women who entered the philosophy programme of the École Normale Supérieure in 1927. Simone Weil … Continue reading →

Posted in Clémence Ramnoux, Emile Benveniste, Gaston Bachelard, Jacques Lacan, Jean Gottmann, Jean Hyppolite, Kostas Axelos, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Blanchot, Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, Sunday Histories, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Le thermomètre de Foucault, 9 Jan 2026, organised by Grégoire Chamayou, Frédéric Keck and Jean-Claude Monod

Posted on January 3, 2026 by stuartelden

Le thermomètre de Foucault, 9 Jan 2026, Journée d’étude organisée par Grégoire Chamayou (CNRS-ENS Paris), Frédéric Keck (CNRS-EHESS Paris) et Jean-Claude Monod (CNRS-ENS Paris). Dans sa généalogie des savoirs biopolitiques, Michel Foucault a beaucoup parlé des milieux mais peu du climat. Pourtant, … Continue reading →

Posted in Conferences, Michel Foucault | Leave a comment

My favourite academic books of 2025

Posted on January 1, 2026 by stuartelden

A list of academic books I liked published in 2025, or late 2024, or in paperback this year. Many of the books I read this year were published years ago; some of the 2025 ones I’ve bought or have been … Continue reading →

Posted in Alexandre Kojève, Books, Boundaries, Clémence Ramnoux, Ernst Kantorowicz, Erwin Panofsky, Gaston Bachelard, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Georges Bataille, Georges Canguilhem, Georges Dumézil, Gilles Deleuze, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michel Serres, Pierre Bourdieu, Theory, William Shakespeare | Leave a comment

My publications in 2025 – on Koyré, Foucault, Lefebvre and some reviews

Posted on December 31, 2025 by stuartelden

Most of this year was spent working on my very long manuscript Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth-Century France, which is coming together but has been hard work to reach this point. I have shared a few updates on the research and … Continue reading →

Posted in Adam David Morton, Alexandre Koyré, Emile Benveniste, Ernst Kantorowicz, Georges Dumézil, Henri Lefebvre, Mapping Indo-European Thought in Twentieth Century France, Michel Foucault, Sunday Histories, Uncategorized, William Shakespeare | Leave a comment