Transgression, Discipline, Resistance: Studies in Michel Foucault

History of madness, discipline and punishment, clinic and sexuality are the main themes in Michel Foucault's groundbreaking work. He challenges customary ideas and perceptions regarding the operation of institutions of knowledge and the formation of scientific disciplines. His research raises questions concerning the relationship between power and knowledge, practices of the self and concepts of truth and discourse. In the seminar we will examine the relationship between thought and transgression in Foucault - an analysis of discourse and deviation underlined by an act of resistance, a thought that becomes transgressive. Through a close reading of some of Foucault’s case studies we will pose the question what transgression offers to the history of ideas, what critical possibilities and positions it allows, what are its implications on the fields of art and design.