Date: Sun, 06 Dec 1998 21:03:10 -0500 From: Richard Lynch <lynchrb-AT-bc.edu> Subject: Essential works vol2 -- what's new Howdy folks, Vol. 2 of _The Essential Works of MF_ has been available for several months in its American edition (New Press -- hardback only right now), but may not yet have been released in the UK (and world?) edition (Penguin, I believe). Some people have been asking about the contents of vol. 2. I'm including a list of the contents, based on the pieces' numbers in Dits & Ecrits. (That is, "13" is "A preface to transgression" (Préface =E0 la transgression, DE # 13, vol 1, pp. 233-249). So this list will be useful for people who have access to the French Dits et Ecrits, and otherwise won't be particularly helpful. (All 4 volumes of DE have a complete list of the numbered pieces in the back.) So, Essential Works, vol. 2 includes 32 selections, in order: 8, 10, 7, 11, 13, 14, 20, 21, 36, 38, 43, 360, 53, 69/258, 164, 201, 284, 286, 305, 30, 34, 46, 48, 59, 83, 80, 84, 102, 103, 330, 345, 361/219. (The two double-numbered entries are in fact included twice, in two slightly variant versions, in DE.) Of all these articles, only the following appear in English *for the first time*: 10, 7, 11, 21, 43, 201, 284, 305, 30, 83, 103 So, only 11 of 32 articles are not already available elsewhere in English -- one of these (#10) is available in modified form as chapter 1 of _Death and the labyrinth_, and another one (#21) is already due to appear elsewhere within the year. So a grand total of 9 of 32 are completely new and unique translations. EW vol. 2 represents the *fifth* time (that I know of) that one of the selections (#330) has been published in English. (Fortunately, in these 5 different publications, only 3 different titles were used.) Apart from a complete collection, including all of DE, this just doesn't seem very useful to me. Vol. 1 followed the same pattern: only 9 of 27 selections were previously unpublished. All nine are in fact related to MF's tenure at the Coll=E8ge de France -- his candidacy presentation and 8 of 11 course summaries (3 were already available in English, and one of the 8 is due out elsewhere) -- and these could have been published as a free-standing book (_Michel Foucault at the Coll=E8ge de France_ is the obvious title) that would have been of great interest and much less expensive than EW vol. 1 is. Considering that only about 150 of the 364 pieces included in D&E are currently available in English, it seems to me that the repackaging of already-available material constitutes a real disservice to the community of Foucault scholars. The Italian edition of Dits et Ecrits, on the other hand, will be issued as a 4-vol. set that exactly mirrors the organization of the French. In addition to assuring that all the texts are eventually available in translation (and in a unified location), this also allows for a standardization of reference, since each piece could then be referred to by DE number (as I've done here). Unfortunately, since the Essential Works was touted as the English Dits et Ecrits, a complete collection now looms as well-nigh impossible. I hope there's something useful in all of this moaning and ranting, Yours, Richard Richard A. Lynch Dept. of Philosophy Boston College Chestnut HIll, MA 02467 USA (617) 552-3861 (office) (617) 552-3874 (fax) lynchrb-AT-bc.edu
Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005