Foucault: A Very Short Introduction

Gary Gutting - Foucault: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2005. 141 lk

AVSI sarja lugemine on lausa nauding. Kirjastiil on kergestimõistetav, lausestus on logiline, peatükid on lihtsate teemadega ja pildid/viited/näited on huvitavad.
Foucaulti kohta tean nüüd nii palju, et ta oli mitmekesine mõtleja/kirjutaja ja mingisugused üldistused on mul ka selle kohta, mida ta kirjutas ja kellest ta eeskuju võttis. Aga kes ta oli? "Do not ask who I am and do not ask me to remain the same . . . Let us leave it to our bureaucrats and our police to see that our papers are in order."
Oma dissertatsiooni kirjutades elas-töötas ta Rootsis, Poolas, Saksamaal ja pärast õpetamisest loobumist reisis ta Jaapanisse, Brasiiliasse ja Californiasse. Spekuleeritakse, et sellelt viimaselt reisilt hankis ta endale ka AIDSi. Ta kirjutas akadeemilisi bestsellereid ja sai 20nda sajandi kõige tsiteerituimaks filosoofiks, kirjutades raamatuid vaimuhaigustest ja seksist. Muuseas, see kolmetäheline sõna esineb käesolevas raamatus täpselt 130 korda (enamjaolt väljendites "homosexual" ja "sexual desire").
Kohe kui selle kokkuvõtte ära postitan, asun lugema Foucaulti tekstikatkendit järgmise nädala seminariks. Lihtsalt niisama kleebin siia tema kohta käiva sissejuhatava katkendi wikipediast:
Michel Foucault (French pronunciation: [miʃɛl fuˈko]), born Paul-Michel Foucault (15 October 1926 – 25 June 1984), was a French philosopher, sociologist, and historian. He held a chair at the prestigious Collège de France with the title "History of Systems of Thought," and also taught at the University at Buffalo and the University of California, Berkeley.
Foucault is best known for his critical studies of social institutions, most notably psychiatry, medicine, the human sciences, and the prison system, as well as for his work on the history of human sexuality. His writings on power, knowledge, and discourse have been widely discussed and taken up by others. In the 1960s Foucault was associated with structuralism, a movement from which he distanced himself. Foucault also rejected the poststructuralist and postmodernist labels later attributed to him, preferring to classify his thought as a critical history of modernity rooted in Kant. Foucault's project was particularly influenced by Nietzsche, his "genealogy of knowledge" a direct allusion to Nietzsche's "genealogy of morality". In a late interview he definitively stated: "I am a Nietzschean." In 2007 Foucault was listed as the most cited scholar in the humanities by The Times Higher Education Guide.