Foucault For Beginners [Paperback]

Lydia Alix Fillingham (Author), Moshe Susser (Illustrator)

Book Description

Series: For Beginners | Publication Date: August 21, 2007

Michel Foucault’s work has profoundly affected the teaching of such diverse disciplines as literary criticism, criminology, and gender studies. Arguing that definitions of abnormal behavior are culturally constructed, Foucault explored the unfair divisions between those who meet and those who deviate from social norms. In Foucault For Beginners, the reader will discover Foucault’s deeply visual sense of scenes such as ritual public executions.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: For Beginners (August 21, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1934389129
• ISBN-13: 978-1934389126
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.5 x 8.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #194,293 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Making Foucault easier to understand, July 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Foucault for Beginners (Writers and Readers Documentary Comic Books: 62) (Paperback)

Somehow in college you don't get around to studying all the things you want to. After you gradaute you can't seem to pick up a 60 pound volume of someone's intellectual achievement, sit down infront a warm fire and pour over every paragraph- let alone do you find the time to just sit! The answer to those still desiring to learn more than the required number of credits in college is the "for Beginners" series. Condensing a subject's concepts to a user-friendly, entertaining and thought-provoking illustrated book is not easy. But this is as good as it gets! Although Foucault would proably have not approved of the "simplified" commentary of this book, it sure helps everyone else understand his contribution to French intellectualism.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Speedy introduction to Foucault's work, February 18, 2001

By 

"notpink" (MN baby!) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Foucault for Beginners (Writers and Readers Documentary Comic Books: 62) (Paperback)

I picked up this book to help me prepare for a short presentation I had to give on Foucault. Since I had very little time to do reasearch (only 2 weeks), reading through a book such as Discipline and Punish or even the Foucault Reader was out of the question. This was a great introduction to Foucault's general theories, and it included brief synopses of specific works. The writing style is quick-to-the-point and full of light humor, and the comic book style added to this feeling. I especially enjoyed the way this book used certain stories and situations to put some of Foucault's points into "lamens terms". It also tells you which of Foucault's books make the best starting points, for anyone who wants to read "the real thing".

I will agree with some of the other reviewers that some of the explanations were a little TOO brief, but that's to be expected with such a short book. Despite this minor imperfection, I was able to walk away completely understanding the major points of Foucault's study. Not to be counted on as a single source, this book is best used as an introduction, or a companion, to the works of Foucault.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent introduction!, January 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Foucault for Beginners (Writers and Readers Documentary Comic Books: 62) (Paperback)

The current wave of French intellectuals being given to obscure language, these introductory volumes are welcome. I especially enjoyed Fillingham's explication of the way that power and knowledge are inseperable, for Foucault. Having waded through The History of Sexuality in grad school, I now wish I had had this book to give me an overview of the work before I had plunged into it. I have read DERRIDA FOR BEGINNERS, and would have enjoyed hearing from Fillingham how Foucault's thought differs from Derrida's.