The Deleuze Seminars is a collection of audio recordings, transcriptions, and English translations of, and supplemental materials from, the lectures French philosopher Gilles Deleuze gave during  his career at the University of Paris 8.

"Foucault" was a 25-lecture seminar given from October 1985 to May 1986. In these lectures, Deleuze offers his interpretation and analysis of French philosopher Michel Foucault's work. Examining the theoretical foundations and major themes of Foucault's philosophy, Deleuze dedicates several lectures to each of what he calls the "three axes" of Foucault's thought. This seminar coincides with the publication of Deleuze's book Foucault (1986).

In the 27 May 1986 lecture, Deleuze begins with an explanation of what he means by 'interpretation' vis-à-vis his course on Foucault. Other topics of discussion include: the creation of concepts; the new sense (acception) of names and words; the original concepts introduced by Foucault (Deleuze asserts that we have to draw the lines [tracer les lignes], the signature of philosophical concepts); the fold and the unfold (le dépli) as an artistic gesture; Mallarmé's invocation of the fold; and English essayist Thomas de Quincey and his book Revolt of the Tartars. Much of the lecture consists of the class listening to French composer, conductor and writer Pierre Boulez's Fold by fold: Portrait of Mallarmé (Pli selon pli: Portrait de Mallarmé), which incorporates lines of Mallarmé’s poetry. Deleuze also reads some of Mallarmé's poetry.

This dataset includes: three mp3 recordings of the lecture (total time, 1:41:57), an aggregate version of the audio recordings into a single mp3, and the complete French transcription of the recorded lecture in both pdf (11 pp) and plain text.

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Les Séminaires de Deleuze sont une collection d'enregistrements audio, de transcriptions et de traductions en anglais et de documents complémentaires des conférences que le philosophe français Gilles Deleuze a donné lors de sa carrière à l'Université de Paris 8.

«Foucault» était un séminaire de 25 conférences donné d'octobre 1985 à mai 1986. Dans ces conférences, Deleuze offre son interprétation et son analyse de l’œuvre du philosophe français Michel Foucault. En examinant les fondements théoriques et les thèmes majeurs de la philosophie de Foucault, Deleuze consacre plusieurs conférences à chacun de ce qu'il appelle les «trois axes» de la pensée de Foucault. Ce séminaire coïncide avec la publication du livre de Deleuze Foucault (1986).

Dans la conférence du 27 mai 1986, Deleuze commence par expliquer ce que veut dire par «interprétation» par rapport à son cours sur Foucault. Les autres sujets de discussion comprennent: la création de concepts; la nouvelle acception des noms et des mots; les concepts originaux amenés par Foucault (Deleuze affirme qu'il en faut en tracer les lignes, la signature des concepts philosophiques); le pli et le dépli comme geste artistique; l'invocation du pli chez poète français Stéphane Mallarmé; et l'essayiste anglais Thomas de Quincey et son livre La révolte des Tartares. Une grande partie de la conférence consiste en l'écoute du compositeur, chef d'orchestre et écrivain français Pierre Boulez, Pli selon pli: Portrait de Mallarmé, qui incorpore des vers de la poésie de Mallarmé. Deleuze lectures aussi une partie de la poésie de Mallarmé.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Gilles Deleuze (2018). Foucault: Lecture 25, 27 May 1986. Purdue University Research Repository. doi:10.4231/R74J0C90

  BibTex | EndNote

1. 20th Century French Philosophy
2. Audio Recording
3. Concept Creation
4. Deleuze Recordings
5. Deleuze Seminars
6. Gilles Deleuze
7. Michel Foucault
8. Music
9. Philosophy
10. Philosophy and Literature
11. Philosophy (Dept)
12. Pierre Boulez
13. Stéphane Mallarmé
14. The Fold
15. Thomas de Quincey

This research has been generously supported through a grant from the College of Liberal Arts, Purdue University.

The translations of Deleuze’s “Foucault” seminars have been made possible by a Scholarly Editions and Translations grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. This research has also been generously supported through a grant from the College of Liberal Arts, Purdue University.

The description of this dataset is based on the meticulous work of Frédéric Astier, whose Les cours enregistrés de Gilles Deleuze, 1979-1987 has catalogued Deleuze’s seminars for those years.

Special thanks to the family of Gilles Deleuze and the University of Paris 8 for permission to reproduce the material published here.