Haase_UZ_x007E_DTh (2).pdf - South African Theological Seminary
Haase_UZ_x007E_DTh (2).pdf - South African Theological Seminary
Haase_UZ_x007E_DTh (2).pdf - South African Theological Seminary
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74<br />
Daniel Defert was sent to Tunisia for his military service, and Foucault followed,<br />
taking a position at the University of Tunis in 1965. In 1966, Foucault published Les<br />
Mots et les choses (The Order of Things), during the height of his interest in<br />
structuralism, which intellectually grouped him with scholars like Jacques Lacan, Claude<br />
Lévi-Strauss, and Roland Barthes, who purposed to discredit the existentialism made<br />
popular by Jean-Paul Sartre. By now, Foucault was anti-communist, but never fully<br />
distanced himself from elements of Marxist thinking. Foucault was still in Tunis during<br />
the student rebellions, which deeply affected him.<br />
In the fall of 1968, he returned to France, taking a job at the new French experimental<br />
university at Vincennes, which opened that year (1968). Here, Foucault became the first<br />
head of the department of philosophy, beginning in December 1968. In 1969, he<br />
published L'archéologie du savoir (The Archeology of Knowledge), a response to his<br />
critics. During his brief time at Vincennes, he joined students rebelling against police. In<br />
1970, he was given a prestigious position at Collège de France as Professor of the<br />
History of Systems of Thought, and during this period of his life, his political activism<br />
decreased. Daniel Defert joined the ultra-Maoist Gauche Proletarienne (GP), with whom<br />
Foucault loosely associated. Foucault helped found the Groupe d'Information sur les<br />
Prisons, or Prison Information Groups, which was a way for prisoners to voice their<br />
concerns. His work became markedly political thereafter (cf., Surveiller et Punir --<br />
Discipline and Punish).<br />
During the 1970’s, many former Maoists changed their stance and began citing<br />
Foucault as a major influence in their thinking. Foucault left France to spend time in the<br />
United States at SUNY - Buffalo, where he had earlier lectured, and at U-California<br />
(Berkley). In 1975, he took LSD at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley National Park, later<br />
calling it the best experience of his life. He enthusiastically participated in the gay<br />
community of San Francisco (California), and was particularly fond of S&M (sadomasochism).<br />
Here, he contracted HIV, eventually dying of an AIDS-related illness back<br />
home in Paris, France (1984).<br />
People like Charles Taylor, Jürgen Habermas, Jacques Derrida, Nancy Fraser and<br />
Slavoj Zizek all criticized Foucault. While each focused on different specifics, all<br />
University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, <strong>South</strong> Africa