DOI: 10.4231/ehkk-c552
title: Foucault: Lecture 26, 03 June 1986

description: &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Deleuze Seminars&lt;/em&gt; is a collection of audio recordings, transcriptions, and English translations of, and supplemental materials from, the lectures French philosopher Gilles Deleuze gave during his career at the University of Paris 8.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&quot;&quot;Foucault&quot; was a 26-lecture seminar given from October 1985 to June 1986.  In these lectures, Deleuze offers his interpretation and analysis of French philosopher Michel Foucault&#39;s work. Examining the theoretical foundations and major themes of Foucault&#39;s philosophy, Deleuze dedicates several lectures to each of what he calls the &quot;three axes&quot; of Foucault&#39;s thought. This seminar coincides with the publication of Deleuze&#39;s book &lt;em&gt;Foucault&lt;/em&gt; (1986).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The final session, on June 3, is based on questions posed to Deleuze by students in advance, mostly on the fold, subjectification, the line of the Outside, and tracing and crossing the line. Proposing a number of specific writers whose works offer reflections on discovering the line of the Outside (cf. Melville, Michaux, Van Gogh, Gauguin, D.H. Lawrence, and Henry Miller), Deleuze also examines Foucault&rsquo;s 1981 conversation with filmmaker Werner Schroeter as a way to consider processes of subjectification in the contrast between passion and love. Deleuze also anticipates &lt;em&gt;What Is Philosophy?&lt;/em&gt; with his reflection on philosophy as the creation of concepts, percepts and affects, and through an extended intervention by Georges Comtesse, Deleuze considers the alternate genealogy in Foucault proposed by Comtesse concerning &ldquo;uses of pleasure&rdquo; and the ethics of sexual practice. Other topics include: the relation of the fold and the line of the Outside with phenomenology; the relation of processes of subjectification with power; how Romantic subjectivity was inflected by power; possible thwarting of power&rsquo;s attempts to plug lines of flight; and habits within processes of subjectification as these relate to the creative process, with Deleuze concluding by affirming that no power can impede this creativity.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This dataset for the new version includes three files, the translation and transcription of the session in Open Data Text (odt) format, and the original French transcription of the recorded lecture prepared by Marc Haas. The aggregate version of the audio recordings is unavailable.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;--&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Les S&eacute;minaires de Deleuze&lt;/em&gt; sont une collection d&#39;enregistrements audio, de transcriptions et de traductions en anglais et de documents compl&eacute;mentaires des conf&eacute;rences que le philosophe fran&ccedil;ais Gilles Deleuze a donn&eacute; lors de sa carri&egrave;re &agrave; l&#39;Universit&eacute; de Paris 8.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&laquo;Foucault&raquo; &eacute;tait un s&eacute;minaire de 26 s&eacute;ances ayant lieu d&#39;octobre 1985 &agrave; juin 1986. Dans ces conf&eacute;rences, Deleuze offre son interpr&eacute;tation et son analyse de l&rsquo;&oelig;uvre du philosophe fran&ccedil;ais Michel Foucault. En examinant les fondements th&eacute;oriques et les th&egrave;mes majeurs de la philosophie de Foucault, Deleuze consacre plusieurs conf&eacute;rences &agrave; chacun de ce qu&#39;il appelle les &laquo;trois axes&raquo; de la pens&eacute;e de Foucault. Ce s&eacute;minaire co&iuml;ncide avec la publication du livre de Deleuze &lt;em&gt;Foucault&lt;/em&gt; (1986).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;La derni&egrave;re s&eacute;ance, le 3 juin, s&rsquo;appuie sur des questions pos&eacute;es &agrave; Deleuze par les &eacute;tudiants &agrave; l&rsquo;avance, principalement sur le pli, la subjectivation, la ligne du Dehors, et le tra&ccedil;age et le franchissement de la ligne. En proposant un certain nombre d&rsquo;auteurs sp&eacute;cifiques dont les &oelig;uvres offrent des r&eacute;flexions sur la d&eacute;couverte de la ligne du Dehors (cf. Melville, Michaux, Van Gogh, Gauguin, D.H. Lawrence et Henry Miller), Deleuze examine &eacute;galement l&rsquo;entretien de Foucault avec le cin&eacute;aste Werner Schroeter en 1981 comme un moyen d&rsquo;envisager les processus de subjectivation et le contraste entre passion et amour. Deleuze anticipe &eacute;galement &lt;em&gt;Qu&rsquo;est-ce que la philosophie ?&lt;/em&gt; avec sa r&eacute;flexion sur la philosophie comme cr&eacute;ation de concepts, de percepts et d&rsquo;affects. Gr&acirc;ce &agrave; une intervention prolong&eacute;e de Georges Comtesse, Deleuze examine la g&eacute;n&eacute;alogie alternative chez Foucault propos&eacute;e par Comtesse concernant les &laquo; usages du plaisir &raquo; et l&rsquo;&eacute;thique de la pratique sexuelle. D&rsquo;autres sujets de discussion comprennent : la relation du pli et de la ligne du Dehors avec la ph&eacute;nom&eacute;nologie ; la relation des processus de subjectivation avec le pouvoir ; comment la subjectivit&eacute; romantique a &eacute;t&eacute; infl&eacute;chie par le pouvoir ; la possible &eacute;chec des tentatives du pouvoir de boucher les lignes de fuite ; et les habitudes au sein des processus de subjectivation en relation avec le processus cr&eacute;atif. Deleuze affirme &agrave; la fin qu&rsquo;aucun pouvoir ne peut entraver cette cr&eacute;ativit&eacute;.&lt;/p&gt;
description: Lecture given by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze at the University of Paris 8, 3 June 1986. This is lecture 26 of a 26-lecture seminar Deleuze taught between October 1985 and June 1986.