DOI: 10.4231/r7jd4tzr
title: Foucault: Lecture 1, 22 October 1985

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 25-lecture seminar given from October 1985 to May 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 22 October 1985 lecture, Deleuze introduces the first axis of Foucault&#39;s thought he will examine in the seminar: historical formations. Other topics of discussion include: the discipline of the archives; &#39;to see&#39; (&lt;em&gt;le voir&lt;/em&gt;) and &#39;to speak&#39; (&lt;em&gt;le parler&lt;/em&gt;) as conditions of historical formations; the lesson of things and the lesson of grammar, &lsquo;to see&rsquo; is not &lsquo;to say&rsquo; (&lt;em&gt;dire&lt;/em&gt;); the drawing and the text; the visible and the statable (&lt;em&gt;l&#39;&eacute;non&ccedil;able&lt;/em&gt;), and visibilities and statements; &#39;to see&#39; and &#39;to speak&#39; as conditions specific to each period (&lt;em&gt;&eacute;poque&lt;/em&gt;) which make behaviors and mentalities possible; the asylum, the general hospital, and the prison as places that make seen (&lt;em&gt;font voir&lt;/em&gt;); places of confinement and of the visual grid (&lt;em&gt;quadrillage&lt;/em&gt;); English philosopher Jeremy Bentham, the Panopticon, and the panoptic (&lt;em&gt;le panoptique&lt;/em&gt;); prison as a matter of light and shadow; the unreason (&lt;em&gt;d&eacute;raison&lt;/em&gt;) of the seventeenth century and the place of visibility; the regime of statements and the reform of seventeenth century criminal law (&lt;em&gt;droit p&eacute;nal&lt;/em&gt;); disciplinary techniques and the invention of the concept of delinquency; discursive and non-discursive formations; the works of French writer Raymond Roussel as making seen: 1) machines or mechanical processes, 2) the linguistic process or the statable (&lt;em&gt;&eacute;nonciatif&lt;/em&gt;) regime, and 3) the irreducibility of the statement and visibility; the disjunction or non-relationship of &#39;to see&#39; and &#39;to speak&#39;; visibilities and statements as conditions; the primate and the non-reducibility of statements to visibilities; French literary theorist, philosopher, and writer Maurice Blanchot&#39;s &lt;em&gt;The Infinite Conversation&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;L&#39;entretien infini&lt;/em&gt;); the visual image as presenting places without event; visibilities as continually capturing statements, and the battle between the two; historical formations and the intertwining (&lt;em&gt;l&#39;entrelacement&lt;/em&gt;), or combination, of regimes of statements and fields of visibility; and knowledge as procedure (the process of visibility + process of statability).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This dataset includes: three mp3 recordings of the lecture (total time, 2:09:12), an aggregate version of the audio recordings into a single mp3, and the complete French transcription of the recorded lecture in both pdf (23 pp) and plain text.&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 25 conf&eacute;rences donn&eacute; d&#39;octobre 1985 &agrave; mai 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 22 octobre 1985, Deleuze introduit le premier axe de la pens&eacute;e de Foucault qu&#39;il examinera dans le s&eacute;minaire: les formations historiques. Les autres sujets de discussion comprennent: la discipline des archives; le voir et le parler comme conditions de formations historiques; la le&ccedil;on des choses et la le&ccedil;on de grammaire, le voir n&#39;est pas le dire; le dessin et le texte; le visible et l&#39;&eacute;non&ccedil;able, les visibilit&eacute;s et les &eacute;nonc&eacute;s; le voir et le parler comme des conditions propres &agrave; chaque &eacute;poque qui rendent possibles les comportements et les mentalit&eacute;s; l&#39;asile, l&#39;h&ocirc;pital g&eacute;n&eacute;ral, et la prison comme lieux qui font voir; lieux de confinement et de la quadrillage visuelle; le philosophe anglais Jeremy Bentham, le &lt;em&gt;Panopticon&lt;/em&gt; et le panoptique; la prison comme une question de lumi&egrave;re et d&#39;ombre; la &lt;em&gt;d&eacute;raison&lt;/em&gt; du XVIIe si&egrave;cle et le lieu de visibilit&eacute;; le r&eacute;gime des &eacute;nonc&eacute;s et la r&eacute;forme du droit p&eacute;nal du XVIIe si&egrave;cle; les techniques disciplinaires et l&#39;invention de la notion de d&eacute;linquance; formations discursives et non discursives; les &oelig;uvres de l&#39;&eacute;crivain fran&ccedil;ais Raymond Roussel comme faisant voir: 1) les machines ou les processus machiniques, 2) le proc&egrave;de linguistique ou le r&eacute;gime &eacute;nonciatif, et 3) l&#39;irr&eacute;ductibilit&eacute; de l&rsquo;&eacute;nonc&eacute; et de la visibilit&eacute;; la disjonction ou le non rapport entre le voir et le parler; les visibilit&eacute;s et les &eacute;nonc&eacute;s comme conditions; le primat et la non r&eacute;ductibilit&eacute; des &eacute;nonc&eacute;s sur les visibilit&eacute;s; le th&eacute;oricien litt&eacute;raire, philosophe et &eacute;crivain fran&ccedil;ais Maurice Blanchot et son &lt;em&gt;L&#39;Entretien infini&lt;/em&gt;; l&#39;image visuelle comme le pr&eacute;sentation des lieux sans &eacute;v&eacute;nement; visibilit&eacute;s comme ne cessent de capturer les &eacute;nonc&eacute;s, et la bataille entre les deux; les formations historiques et l&#39;entrelacement, la combinaison, des r&eacute;gimes d&#39;&eacute;nonc&eacute;s et des champs de visibilit&eacute;s; et le savoir comme proc&eacute;dure (processus de visibilit&eacute; + proc&eacute;d&eacute; d&rsquo;&eacute;noncabilit&eacute;).&lt;/p&gt;
description: Lecture given by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze at the University of Paris 8, 22 October 1985. This is lecture 1 of a 25-lecture seminar Deleuze taught between October 1985 and May 1986.