Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault

by Michel Foucault

Book Overview

Shortly before his death in 1984, Michel Foucault spoke of an idea for a new book on "technologies of the self." He described it as "composed of different papers about the self..., about the role of reading and writing in constituting the self... and so on." The book Foucault envisioned was based on a faculty seminar on "Technologies of the Self," originally presented at the University of Vermont in the fall of 1982. This volume is a partial record...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0870235931
• ISBN13: 9780870235931
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A perfunctory work

I would have cared to hear more about Foucault's romances in the Ugrian mountains ranges, yet he still manages to capture the mind and imagnination of anyone who has lost a dog to the savagery of a freeway. Word of warning: have a box of tissues handy!

Interesting collection of essays on Foucault and the self.

"Technologies of the self" contains essays by Foucault-scholars and Foucault himself. It concentrates on Foucault's later works, where there is a shift of focus from the power/knowledge axis to the axis of ethics. This collection of should be of interest to anyone who are interested in Foucault's work on ethics and subjectivity. I found one essay particularly illuminating; "Foucault and the Liberal View of the Individual" by Alessandro - something.