Foucault – uncollected notes, lectures and interviews

Dits et écrits collects almost all the short pieces published in any language in Foucault’s lifetime. For an English bibliography of translations of pieces in Dits et écrits, see Richard Lynch (at www.michel-foucault.com and updated in A Companion to Foucault). Of course, there are also the books Foucault published, and the lecture courses that have been published after his death. On Foucault’s collaborative projects, see the list here.

In late 2015 Foucault Studies published my bibliography of ‘The Uncollected Foucault‘, a list of pieces which didn’t make it into Dits et écrits, but which are available in some form.

Below are several of those pieces which are available online. With a couple of exceptions where I can link to an online version or to correct a reference I’ve generally not included things in Jacques Lagrange’s ‘Complément bibliographique’ (Dits et écrits, IV, 829-38; and annotated and supplemented in Lynch’s bibliography). I’ve also provided links to a few English originals of texts which were translated into French for Dits et écrits. Corrections and additions very welcome.

I am trying to get hold of these texts – please help if you can.

Uncollected notes, lectures and interviews

An anonymously published text by Foucault on Arcadie – ‘Le départe du prophète’, 1982 (with an interview between Didier Eribon and André Baudry)

Foucault’s preparatory notes to Les mots et les choses (The Order of Things) – La bibliothèque de Foucault : Guide des papiers de travail de Michel Foucault.

“Plan détaillé du cours de Michel Foucault (1966-1967 à la Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines) sur Descartes”, Appendix to Rachida Boubaker-Triki, “Foucault en Tunisie”, Rue Descartes, No 61, 2008, pp. 112-3.

“Structuralisme et analyse littéraire” – lecture from 4 Feb 1967 – Les cahiers de Tunisie, Vol 39 No 149-50, 1989, pp. 21-41. (dated here to 1987, which is clearly wrong).

“Lettre de Michel Foucault à Pierre Klossowski du 3 juillet 1969 sur Nietzsche et le cercle vicieux” and “Lettre de Michel Foucault à Pierre Klossowski de l’hiver 1970/71 sur La monnaie vivante” (reproduction of handwritten texts), Pierre Klossowski, Paris: Centre G. Pompidou, 1985, pp. 85-90.

“Freedom and Knowledge” – from 1971 – in Fons Elders and Lionel Claris (ed.), Freedom and Knowledge: A Hitherto Unpublished Interview, Amsterdam: Elders Special Productions, 2012, pp. 27-47.

”Folie et civilisation” – lecture from 24 April 1971 – Les cahiers de Tunisie, Vol 39 No 149-50, 1989, pp. 43-59.

“La peinture de Manet“ – lecture from 20 May 1971 – Les cahiers de Tunisie, Vol 39 No 149-50, 1989, pp. 61-89. A definitive, improved version can be found in La peinture de Manet, translated as Manet and the Object of Painting. An illustrated version of the French text is available open access here.

“Avertissement“, Hommage à Jean Hyppolite, Paris: PUF, 1971, p. i. (A very brief preface to the collection, signed ‘M.F.’)

Katia D. Kaupp et Franz-Olivier Giesbert (with Jean-Marie Domenach, Michel Foucault et Pierre Vidal-Naquet), “Les prisons de Pleven”, Le nouvel observateur, no 375, 17 janvier 1972, pp. 24-6 (or part I, part II)

“Cérémonie, théâtre et politique au XVIIe siècle”, lecture in Minnesota, 7 April 1972, English summary by Stephen Davidson.

Michel Foucault et le membres du G.I.S. [Groupe d’Information Santé], “Médecine et luttes des classes”, La Nef, No 49, 1972, pp. 67-73.

“Power and Norms: Notes” in Michel Foucault: Power, Truth, Strategy, ed. Meaghan Morris and Paul Patton, Sydney: Feral Publications, pp. 59–66 – notes from lecture of 28 March 1973; lecture itself now in La Société punitive.

Maurice T. Maschino, “La machine à penser s’est-elle détraquée: La liberté de l’esprit a-t-elle été stérilisée par la volonté de puissance et l’esprit de chapelle?”, Le monde diplomatique, No 256, juillet 1975, pp. 18-21 – excerpts from interview with Foucault (requires subscription).

“L’appel des Sept”, Le nouvel observateur, no 568, 29 septembre 1975, p. 41.

“Conference de Michel Foucault, Montréal, le 29 mars 1976”, typescript (IMEC ms. D215). Some extracts appear as “Points de vue”, Photo, No 24-25, Summer-Autumn 1976, p. 94, in Dits et écrits no 177, Vol III, pp. 93-4. A complete version was published “Conférence de Michel Foucault sur les «mesures alternatives à l’emprisonnement» prononcée à l’université de Montréal le 15 mars 1976”, Actes: Cahiers d’action juridique, No 73, 1990, pp. 7-16; as “Alternatives à la prison: diffusion ou décroissance du contrôle social? Une entrevue avec Michel Foucault“, Criminologie, vol. 26, no 1, 1993, pp. 13-34 and is also available here; translated by Couze Venn as “Alternatives to the Prison: Dissemination or Decline of Social Control“, Theory, Culture & Society, Vol 26 No 6, 2009, pp. 12-24 (requires subscription). This version is dated as 15 March 1976, but it is the same lecture – given the last two lectures of ‘Society Must be Defended’ were on the 10 and 17 March, 29 March seems more likely.

“Dialogue on Power” – 1976 discussion – in Simeon Wade (ed.), Chez Foucault, Los Angeles: Circabook, 1978, pp. 4-22 (translated into French for Dits et écrits and online here).

“Michel Foucault à Goutelas: la redéfinition du ‘judiciable’” – 1977 discussion – Justice [Syndicat de la Magistrature], No 115, June 1984, pp. 36-39.

“Entretien inédit entre Michel Foucault et quatre militants de la LCR, membres de la rubrique culturelle du journal quotidien Rouge (juillet 1977)“, Question Marx? See also the introduction by Christian Laval, “Michel Foucault et ‘Rouge‘”, Rouge, n. 2084, 28/10/2004.

“Considérations sur le marxisme, la phénoménologie et le pouvoir“, Cités, 2012/4 n° 52, p. 101-126; “Considerations on Marxism, Phenomenology and Power. Interview with Michel Foucault; Recorded on April 3rd, 1978” – with Colin Gordon and Paul Patton, Foucault Studies No 14, 2012.

“Qu-est ce que la critique: Critique et Aufklärung”, Bulletin de la société française de philosophie, 84ème année, n°2, Avril-Juin 1990 – lecture of 27 mai 1978, excerpts in Vacarme; English translation in The Politics of Truth. Forthcoming in a critical edition with Vrin.

Interview of 10 July 1978 with Jean le Bitoux. This one has a complicated history. It was first published (unauthorised) as “Vijftien vragen van homosexuele zijde san Michel Foucault,” in M. Duyves and T. Massen (eds.) Interviews met Michel Foucault, Utrecht, 1982, pp. 13–23; a translation can be found in Mark Blasius and Shane Phelan (eds.), We are Everywhere: A Historical Sourcebook of Gay and Lesbian Politics, New York and London: Routledge, pp. 454-9. It was later published as “Le gai savoir”, Mec magazine, 5, June 1988, pp. 32-36 and “Le gai savoir II”, Mec magazine, 6-7, July-Aug 1988, pp. 30-33 – both parts can be found together here. Another version was “Le Gai Savoir,” interview with Jean Le Bitoux, La Revue H, No 2, Autumn 1996, pp. 42–54; and a definitive version was published as “Le gay savoir” in Jean le Bitoux, Entretiens sur la question gay, Béziers: H&O, 2005, pp. 45-72; translated by Nicolae Morar and Daniel W. Smith as “The Gay Science“, Critical Inquiry, Vol 37 No 3, Spring 2011, pp. 385-403 – see also the pieces by David Halperin and Jean le Bitoux in the same issue. Halperin’s piece was invaluable for tracking its publication history. The Critical Inquiry articles require subscription.

“Du pouvoir“, interview of 13 July 1978, in L’express No 1722, 6-12 juillet 1984, pp. 56-68; translated in Politics, Philosophy, Culture, pp. 96-109; reprinted in Bernard Pivot (ed.), Ecrire, lire et en parler, Paris: Robert Laffont, pp. 355-63.

Jean-Paul Sartre, Michel Foucault, Simone de Beauvoir, Claude Roy, and Phillippe Sollers, et al. “In a Cuban Prison“, New York Review of Books, 7 December 1978, p. 264.

“La phobie d’État“, Libération, No 967, 30 juin-1 juillet 1984, p. 21 (extract from course at Collège de France, 31 janvier 1979 – now published as Naissance de la biopolitique/The Birth of Biopolitics).

“Foucault Recalled: Interview with Michel Foucault“, 29 May 1979 with Frank Mort and Roy Peter – New Formations 55, 2005 (requires subscription)

“Il ne peut pas y avoir de sociétés sans soulèvements” – August 1979 with Farès Sassine, originally published in Arabic, French version in Revue Rodéo, No 2, 2013, pp. 34-56; see also Sassine, “Foucault en l’entretien”, pp. 30-33.

Christian Gury, “Le congrès au fil des jours”, Arcadie: Mouvement homophile de France: Revue Littéraire et scientifique, No 307-8, 1979, pp. 505-10 (reports some remarks from Foucault).

Alfred J. Ayer, Heinrich Boell, Paolo Casini, Jean Delumeau, and Michael Dummett, et al. [inc. Michel Foucault], “The Flying University“, New York Review of Books, January 24, 1980, p. 264.

Georges Baguet et. al., “Lettre. L’affaire Suffert”, Le nouvel observateur, no 792, 14-20 janvier, 1980, p. 28.

Michel Foucault (et. al.) “Se défendre”, in Pour la défense libre, supplement to Actes, No 24-25, 1979. pp. 5-6; reprinted in Liasse 1: Se défendre, p. 9 and Quelques archives de la lutte pour la défense libre, pp. 10-11. The text is attributed to multiple authors, but both Daniel Defert (DE I, 57) and Philippe Chevalier report that Foucault was its sole author.

“Power, Moral Values and the Intellectual“, interview with Michael Bess, 3 November 1980, History of the Present 4 (Spring 1988), 1-2, 11-13

Carlin Romano, “Michel Foucault’s New Clothes”, The Village Voice, Vol XXVI No 18, April 29-May 5 1981, pp. 1, 40-2 (includes excerpts from an interview with Foucault).

Michel Foucault and Richard Sennett, “Sexuality and Solitude“, London Review of Books, Vol 3 No 9, 21 May 1981 (a longer version than in the reprints, where Sennett’s remarks are omitted). There is also a version of Foucault’s part, with slight variants, based on the manuscript instead of the transcript: “Sexuality and Solitude”, in Marshall Blonsky, On Signs, Oxford: Blackwell, 1985, pp. 365-72.

“Appendice“, in Didier Eribon, Michel Foucault et ses contemporains, 1994, Paris: Fayard, pp. 261-263; translated by Daniel W. Smith as “The Death of Lacan”, in Tim Dean and Christopher Lane (eds.), Homosexuality & Psychoanalysis, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001, pp. 57-58 (Eribon’s notes from a conversation with Foucault immediately after Lacan’s death).

Otto Friedrich with Sandra Burton, “France’s Philosopher of Power”, Time, November 16 1981, pp. 58-9 (some quotes from an interview with Foucault).

Clare O’Farrell, “Foucault: A View from the Antipode”, in Clare O’Farrell (ed.), Foucault: The Legacy, Brisbane: Queensland University of Technology, 1997, pp. 1-10 (extensive quotes from an interview with Foucault).

“Parrēsia” – lecture from May 1982 from Grenoble, first published in French in 2012 in the journal Anabases; English translation by Graham Burchell in Critical Inquiry (require subscription)

Discourse and Truth: The Problematization of ΠΑΡΡΗΣΙΑ: Notes to the Seminar given by Foucault at the University of California at Berkeley, edited by Joseph Pearson, 1985, iii +121 pp., typescript of October-November 1983 seminar, later published as Fearless Speech, edited by Joseph Pearson, Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), 2001.

Jamin Raskin, “A last interview with French philosopher Michel Foucault”, City Paper, Vol 8 No 3, Jul 27-Aug 2 1984, p. 18.

“Pour une finir avec les mensonges”, Le nouvel observateur, No 1076, 21-27 juin 1985, pp. 60-61 (interview with Didier Eribon, June 1984).

Collected notes, lectures and interviews

There are some pieces in the older books Foucault Live, The Politics of Truth and Politics, Philosophy, Culture which were not authorised by Foucault or were published posthumously, and hence are not included in Dits et écrits. In addition, there are texts in these newer collections:

La beau danger, translated as Speech Begins After Death
Raymond Aron et Michel Foucault, Dialogue
La grande étrangère: À propos de littérature, translated as Language, Madness and Desire: On Literature
Entretiens avec Roger-Pol Droit
Le Corps Utopique – Les Hétérotopies – one of these lectures was developed into the better-known ‘Des Espaces Autres’ (Different Spaces/Of Other Spaces); the other is translated as ‘Utopian Body’ in Caroline A. Jones (ed.), Sensorium: Embodied Experience, Technology and Contemporary Art, MIT Press, 2006.
Foucault va au cinema – English translation Foucault at the Movies.
La peinture de Manet, translated as Manet and the Object of Painting (a version of the French lecture is also available online).
Daniel Defert, Philippe Artières, Laurent Quéro and Michelle Zancarini-Fournel, Le groupe d’information sur les prisons: Archives d’une lutte, 1970-1972, Caen: IMEC, 2001 (out of print).
Philippe Artières (ed.) Groupe d’information sur les prisons: Intolérable, Paris: Verticales, 2013. This collects the four numbered pamphlets under the title Intolérable, and one unnumbered one – Cahiers de revendications sortis des prisons, which is available as a scan here. Intolérable 1: Enquête dans vingt prisons is translated in Marcelo Hoffman, Foucault and Power.
J. Afary and K. B. Anderson, Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of Islamism, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.
L’origine de l’herméneutique de soi: Conférences prononcées à Dartmouth College, 1980
- English versions of lectures available in Political Theory, also includes Bess interview above and a discussion – see my notes on sources here
- Full translation from University of Chicago Press as About the Beginning of the Hermeneutics of the Self: Lectures at Dartmouth College, 1980.
Philippe Artières, Jean-François Bert, Frédéric Gros and Judith Revel (eds.), Cahier de L’Herne 95: Michel Foucault, 2011. This includes a number of important pieces –
- two conferences on Manet (1967 and 1971)
- a text on Picasso’s Las Meninas
- the first draft of the introduction to Archaeology of Knowledge
- “Histoire de la folie et antipsychiatrie”, 9 May 1973 lecture from Montreal
- “Plonger sur place ou plonger du sommet chez Marcus Aurèle: deux exercises spirituels”, extract from the manuscript of 24 February 1982 lecture
- a few other small articles or letters
- see the detailed English review by Benoît Dillet in Foucault Studies
Qu’est-ce que la critique? Suivie de La culture de soi, Paris: Vrin, 2015.