CLS4100

Deleuze and Foucault

Claire Colebrook

12 points - 3 hours per week - Second semester - Clayton - Prohibitions: CRT4100

Objectives On completion of this subject students should be able to demonstrate understanding of some of the key texts and ideas of Foucault and Deleuze; they should be able to use various methods of analysis to consider these thinkers' works in detail; they should have gained skills which will enable them to discuss critically Foucault's and Deleuze's contributions to thought and also to embark on devising new positions based on their writings; and they should have developed their critical and expressive resources to be able to write clear, concise, accurate and independent essays related to the subject.

Synopsis The subject aims to introduce students to a careful reading of selected texts of two recent French philosophers - Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze - who have singly and jointly theorised the nexus between desire and power. The subject is divided into three parts. (1) The common cultural and theoretical background of French philosophy in the twentieth century (through vitalism, structuralism, phenomenology, existentialism, psychoanalysis and Marxism) will be briefly surveyed to contextualise the writings of Foucault and Deleuze. (2) The last writings of Foucault, those he describes as 'genealogy', his writings on prisons and disciplinary power, and his writings on the history of sexuality will be critically explored. (3) Deleuze's 'rhizomatic writings', concentrating on Nietzsche, Sacher von Masoch and A thousand plateaus, will be examined.

Assessment Essays (9000 words): 100%

Recommended reading

Descombes V Modern French philosophy
Foucault M Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison
Foucault M The history of sexuality vols 1-3
Gordon C (ed.) Knowledge/Power
Deleuze G Nietzsche and philosophy
Deleuze G Masochism, coldness and cruelty
Deleuze G and Guattari F A thousand plateaus

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