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ehershkovitz's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
3.5
"Prison has the advantage that it produces delinquency, an instrument for controlling and putting pressure on illegalism, a not insignificant component in the exercise of power on bodies, an element of that physics of power that gave rise to the psychology of the subject."
gellok's review against another edition
4.0
This is clearly an early Foucault lecture in the sense that he appears a bit nervous and rushed. Foucault seems to relax in tone as the series goes on, but for the first several sections the lecture comes off as scattered and Foucault tends to skip over some very interesting notes in his folios. The result, at times, is a murky example of several lines of thought that he deals with more explicitly in "Surveiller et Punir" and the 1976 lecture "Society Must be Defended".
This is still an exciting lecture mind you. Foucault's initial analysis of Hobbes and civil war is compelling, and his breakdown of penalties (specifically the death penalty in Section 4) really sets the stage for some of his later work. Much of this lecture also provides as a decent amount of context for Agamben's "Homo Sacer" - probably more than the 1977 "Security, Territory, Population" lecture that is often linked to Agamben's thought.
Section 9 and beyond is probably where the true strength of the text/lecture is to be found. Foucault's analysis of illegalism is quite nuanced and carries forward into an explication of confinement in Section 12 that is not all that divorced from the first third of "History of Madness". The political struggle which Foucault focuses on with regards to confinement and institutional punishment is lovely.
I wouldn't say that this is his most complex or most original lecture, but it does provide a well rounded conspectus of Foucault's thought in the 70's. The sections are remarkably short (10-12 pages) - quite a bit different from the lecture length he adopted around '74. Great read all around, and a fitting conclusion to the publication of the College de France lectures.
This is still an exciting lecture mind you. Foucault's initial analysis of Hobbes and civil war is compelling, and his breakdown of penalties (specifically the death penalty in Section 4) really sets the stage for some of his later work. Much of this lecture also provides as a decent amount of context for Agamben's "Homo Sacer" - probably more than the 1977 "Security, Territory, Population" lecture that is often linked to Agamben's thought.
Section 9 and beyond is probably where the true strength of the text/lecture is to be found. Foucault's analysis of illegalism is quite nuanced and carries forward into an explication of confinement in Section 12 that is not all that divorced from the first third of "History of Madness". The political struggle which Foucault focuses on with regards to confinement and institutional punishment is lovely.
I wouldn't say that this is his most complex or most original lecture, but it does provide a well rounded conspectus of Foucault's thought in the 70's. The sections are remarkably short (10-12 pages) - quite a bit different from the lecture length he adopted around '74. Great read all around, and a fitting conclusion to the publication of the College de France lectures.
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