Michel Foucault: Chronology

(adapted from the "Biographical Chronology" in The Final Foucault)

1926: Born, Poitiers, France

1936-40: Lycée Henri-IV, Poitiers

1940-45: College St Stanislas, Poitiers

1945: Lycée Henri IV, Paris

1946: Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris

1948: licence de philosophie (can teach secondary school)

1949: licence de psychologie

1951: agrégation de philosophie (can be university lecturer)

1952: Diplôme de psycho-pathologie, Institut de psychologie, Paris

1952-55: teaches pyschology at University of Lille (commutes from Paris)

1955-58: teaches French culture and language at University of Uppsala, Sweden

1958: Director of French Center at University of Warsaw, Poland

1959: Director of French Institute in Hamburg, Germany

1960-66: teaches philosophy and psychology at Clermont-Ferrand (commutes from Paris)

1961: publication of Madness and Civilization

1961: Doctorat ès lettres (can be university professor)

1962: promotion to Professor of Philosophy at Clermont-Ferrand

1962-66: "literary period": writes on Blanchot, Bataille, Klossowski, Artaud, Roussel

1963: publication of Birth of the Clinic and Death and the Labyrinth

1965: trip to Brazil

1965-66: works on the Fouchet educational reforms (MF as "Gaullist technocrat")

1966-68: Visiting Professor of Philosophy, University of Tunis

1966: publication of The Order of Things; reaches best-seller lists (!)

1968-73: ultra-left political activism; many street protests and petitions

1968: Chairman of Philosophy Dept, Paris VIII (Vincennes)

1969: Elected to College de France

1969: publication of The Archaeology of Knowledge

1970: Dec 2, Inaugural lecture at College de France (="The Discourse on Language")

1970-83: regular visits to US; occasional trips to Brazil and Japan

1971-73: active with Groupe d'information sur les prisons (GIP)

1975-83: liberal political orientation: human rights, critique of totalitarian systems

1972: visits Attica prison, New York State

1975: protest executions by Franco regime in Spain

1975: publication of Discipline and Punish

1976: publication of History of Sexuality, vol. 1

1978: articles on Iranian revolution for Corriere della serra

1981: protests in support of Solidarity movement in Poland

1983: teaches at Berkeley as beginning of permanent visiting appointment

1984: publication of volumes 2 and 3 of History of Sexuality

1984: dies in Paris, June 25.

1994: publication of Dits et Ecrits (collection of all MF's work outside his monographs)

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