Michel Foucault's 100th Birthday Marked by Scant Commemoration and Few New Publications

The 100th birthday of Michel Foucault has drawn little enthusiasm, with only a modest number of new publications appearing. Foucault was born on 15 October 1926 into a family of the academic grande bourgeoisie; his father and paternal grandfathers worked as surgeons while also teaching at university. His childhood, in which custom and tradition still carried weight and a cook managed the household, was shaped by this bourgeois background. Years later, however, Foucault recalled different dimensions of his early formation, writing that "far more than family life, events of the 'course of the world' form the actual substance of our memory." This referred to the first existential fear he felt as a young Michel when he heard his parents at the kitchen table discussing the rising [trouble]. The article appears in the current issue of Der Freitag.