Michel Foucault's Bio
All the deets on your favorite critic's personal life.
Basic Information
| Name | Paul-Michel Foucault. Rhymes with "you know." Kind of. |
| Tagline | "Who's got the power?" |
| Nickname | Intellectual Love Child of Nietzsche The Mad Hatter The Mentalist The Reluctant Author Transdiscursive Man (only used by my closest friends) Big Lover Mean kids at school nick-named Polichnello (which means punch), so I ditched Paul-Michel and just went with Michel Fuchs (meaning "fox"), because I have such a sharp tongue and razor-like intellect |
| Sex | Male. But BEWARE of all constructs—"male" is just a compilation of oppressive ideas society enforces about what is male and manliness. Then they take those idea and use them to control your sexuality and sexual pleasure. Just sayin'. |
| Home town | Born in small town of Poitiers in west-central France, but bailed for Paris at the earliest possible opportunity (peace!) and became a student at the Lycée Henry-IV, a school for smarty pants, where I studied history and philosophy. |
Work & Education
| Occupation | As if this kind of big-league thinking and writing isn't a job! Well, I had "real" jobs, too. In fact I had many: I was a psychiatric intern, a cultural diplomat, and a lecturer (at universities in West Germany, Clermont-Ferrand, Tunisia, Vincennes, and Paris). When I wasn't teaching, I was one of those types who spent long days at the library, researching, writing, and revolutionizing the entire direction of human thought. Ka-chow! |
| Education | My motto? "Can't stop, won't stop." Not to brag, but I attended Lycée Henry-IV while most children were still in pull-ups. I kicked bootie in French, Greek, Latin, and history, but, man, I just couldn't deal with the whole math thing, often asking myself the eternal question, "When am I going to use this?" I then went to a long inventory of schools, where I aced philosophy, history, and literature. (To think—my dad thought I should be a surgeon!) Naturally, I found myself at the elite École Normale Supérieure, where only the shining stars of academia go. My doctoral thesis was an intense read titled Madness and Insanity: History of Madness in the Classical Age. (It was approximately a gagillion pages long.) Oh—I then hammered out a second thesis dedicated to the German philosopher Immanuel Kant's 1798 work, Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View. |
Beliefs
| Political views | I joined the French Communist Party, but could never get motivated to take to the streets over the issues it was concerned with. Honestly, I didn't really give a hoot about the class struggle. There, I said it.Besides, those communists can really hate on homosexuals and Jews, and I'm not down with that at all. I ended up bailing on those crazy communists a mere three years after I got mixed up with them. |
| Religious views | Just because I was an altar boy doesn't mean I took all that Roman Catholic stuff seriously. I had plenty of other things to revolt against; and, besides, no one in my family cared that much about religion so it was no biggie there. |
Activities & Interests
| Likes | Theorizing Writing dissertations and books—just writing! writing! writing! Working like a dog Classical music Pleasures of the flesh My radical American admirers Samuel Beckett Lecturing Changing my mind Keeping my readers on their toes Avoiding interviewers' questions and abusing my critics Looking dapper Visiting American prisons and get worked up about their nasty food, violence, poor treatment of prisoners… you get the picture Brooding on death, torture, and pain Questing authority Sadomasochistic sex |
| Dislikes | Homophobia Power Prudes Bullies Anything too science-y Institutions Control Abuse of human rights (especially in Eastern Europe) Tyrannical regimes The idea of "normal" |
| Interests | Sexuality California drug culture Anarchist politics Popular justice (the working class should revenge itself on class enemies vigilante style) Iranian Revolution Gay rights |
| Groups | Poststructuralists Anonymous Postmodernists Anonymous Nietzsche or Bust Lovers of Violence for Peace The Suicidalists Gay Students for Hegel Heavy Drugs, Big Time Hugs Are you Mad? A Mental Illness Advocacy Group Muslims for Political Spirituality |