DOI: 10.4231/j0x9-wt70
title: Foucault: Lecture 11, 21 January 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;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;In the 21 January 1986 lecture, after a brief consideration of Foucault&rsquo;s relationship with cinema in terms of his problem of the visible and the statable (cf. Ren&eacute; Allio&rsquo;s film on Pierre Rivi&egrave;re), Deleuze returns to power as presented in a diagram exposing a relation of forces, distinguishing characteristics of power in contrast to knowledge, and how power reveals active as well as reactive affects. Addressing the plurality of forces, Deleuze returns to the example of the rise of pastoral power, then to the diagram of power with two different definitions&lt;em&gt;, &lt;/em&gt;and to diagrams in different societies, hence indicating mutations from one diagram to another. Deleuze raises the question of origins of a diagram with different responses (the Outside, the dice throw as emission of singularities), and such relinkages of diagrams correspond to &ldquo;Markov chains&rdquo;, but also to Nietzsche&rsquo;s &lt;em&gt;Zarathustra &lt;/em&gt;and &ldquo;the iron hand of necessity&rdquo; shaking the cup of chance. As regards the diagram, Deleuze describes it as informal, non-stratified, perpetually mutating, abstract without being general, and in fact, virtual yet real, then provides details of how mathematical concepts correspond the knowledge-power distinctions. Moreover, since institutions are forms that integrate micro-relations of power, Foucault resuscitates the word &ldquo;government&rdquo; to designate relations of forces most generally, discussing how institutions as molar agencies actualize and integrate molecular relations of forces (cf.  &lt;em&gt;Discipline and Punish,&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;The History of Sexuality&lt;/em&gt;). As an example of molecular sexuality, Deleuze considers how Proust describes sexuality in &lt;em&gt;Sodom and Gomorrah&lt;/em&gt; through numerous variables of the body and pleasures.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This dataset for the new version includes four files, the translation and transcription of the session in Open Data Text (odt) format, an aggregate version of the audio recordings in a single mp3, and the original Paris-8 French transcription of the recorded lecture. The aggregate audio file has been downsampled.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&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 conf&eacute;rences donn&eacute; 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;Dans la conf&eacute;rence du 21 janvier 1986, les sujets de discussion comprennent: Foucault et le cin&eacute;ma contemporain; la disjonction entre le champ sonore et le champ visuel; le rapport entre le visible et l&#39;&eacute;nonҫable; le pouvoir pastoral; diagrammes et cat&eacute;gories de savoirs et de pouvoirs; les multiplicit&eacute;s, les forces affect&eacute;es, les points de r&eacute;ceptivit&eacute; et la distribution des affects; &lt;em&gt;G&eacute;n&eacute;alogie de la morale&lt;/em&gt; de Nietzsche; pouvoirs, d&#39;un point &agrave; un autre, et savoirs (formes); affects et singularit&eacute;s; diagrammes et soci&eacute;t&eacute;s; les anciens Grecs; la rivalit&eacute; des hommes libres des cit&eacute;s; Platon; diagrammes, tirages successifs et coups des d&eacute;s; les r&eacute;encha&icirc;nements et cha&icirc;nes de Markov; Nietzsche et Mallarm&eacute;; enonc&eacute;s, singularit&eacute;s et math&eacute;matiques; courbes int&eacute;grales et voisinages; la notion d&#39;actualisation (int&eacute;gration et diff&eacute;renciation) du pouvoir dans le savoir; les institutions et les int&eacute;grations des rapports de pouvoir; les instances molaires; &lt;em&gt;Histoire de la sexualit&eacute; &lt;/em&gt;de Foucault; et l&#39;&eacute;crivain fran&ccedil;ais Marcel Proust et la sexualit&eacute;.&lt;/p&gt;
description: Lecture given by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze at the University of Paris 8, 21 January 1986. This is lecture 11 of a 26-lecture seminar Deleuze taught between October 1985 and June 1986.