The first full treatment of truth as a core philosophical concept in the late Foucault, this volume examines his work on the ancient world and the early church. Each essay features a deep examination as to how the topics of truth and sexuality intersect with and focus on Foucault’s engagement with ancient philosophy and thought. Truth in the Late Foucault offers readings on Plato, Artemidorus, Cicero, Sophocles and the Stoics, and pays close attention to Cassian, Paulinus of Nola, and early Christian practices of confession.
With the publication of the long-awaited volume 4 of the History of Sexuality: Confessions of the Flesh, the shape of the final Foucault is now brought into stark relief. As well as looking at ancient thought, the contributors explore Foucault’s work in relation to philosophers such as Gadamer, Heidegger, Derrida and Descartes. Foucault’s long-running and often contentious dialogue with psychoanalysis, on the relation between truth and the subject, is also examined. Each essay not only makes an important statement, but also is part of an interconnected arc of topics and understanding, covering both the ancient and modern periods. This book reveals that Foucault’s concern with antiquity raises questions deeply pertinent to the present moment.
List of Illustrations List of Contributors Acknowledgments Introduction: Truth, Dreams, and Psychoanalysis in the Late Foucault, Paul Allen Miller (University of South Carolina, USA) 1. On Dreams, Truth, and the Aesthetics of Existence, Edward McGushin (Stonehill College, USA) 2. Foucault in the Cave with Gadamer: On Truth, Understanding, and Experience, Arash Shokrisarari (Cornell University, USA) 3. Nothing to Do with the Truth? New Reflections on Foucault's Reading of Artemidorus, Sandra Boehringer (University of Strasbourg, France) 4. To Dream the Impossible Dream: Parrhesia and Rhetoric, (De Oratore 3), Paul Allen Miller (University of South Carolina, USA) 5. From True Confessions to True Discourse in the Late Foucault, Niki Kasumi Clements (Rice University, USA) 6. Confessing in Communities: The Genealogical Exclusion of Joy from Late Antique Christianity, Alex Dressler (University of Wisconsin – Madison, USA) 7. Artemidorus as Symptom: Freud and Foucault, Richard H. Armstrong (University of Houston, USA) 8. The Desiring Subject Seeks Pleasure in History: Li Yinhe's Sadomasochistic Fictions and Mao's Cultural Revolution, Leihua Weng (Kalamazoo College, USA) 9. Foucault’s Herculine Barbin: A Step in the Genealogy of Psychoanalysis, Laurie Laufer (Université de Paris, France) 10. The Foucault Effect: Queer Theory and Its Discontents, David Greven (University of South Carolina, USA) Notes References Index
Paul Allen Miller is Carolina Distinguished Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature at the University of South Carolina, USA, and Distinguished Guest Professor of English at Ewha Womans University, Republic of Korea. He is the author of Foucault’s Seminars on Antiquity: Learning to Speak the Truth (Bloomsbury Academic, 2021).
Reviews for Truth in the Late Foucault: Antiquity, Sexuality, and Psychoanalysis
This collection is indispensable for an understanding in Foucault’s later thought and how the problem of truth is entangled with Foucault’s paradigm shifting writings on sexuality. -- Richard Alston, Professor of Roman History, Royal Holloway, UK
