Plague, Foucault, Camus

Authors

  • Adam Herpolsheimer Beasly School of Law

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22439/fs.i35.7078

Keywords:

Albert Camus, Plague, Governmentality, Subjectivation, Truth

Abstract

In January 1975, Michel Foucault contemplated the nature and formation of what in subsequent years he would come to know as governmentality. For Foucault, plague marks the rise of the invention of positive technologies of power, where these relations center around inclusion, multiplication, and security, rather than exclusion, negation, and rejection. In a point that might at first seem ancillary to his central argument, Foucault comments on stylized works about plague, such as those, according to the lecture series’ editors, exemplified by Albert Camus. In footnote fifteen of the January 15, 1975 lecture, in reference to what Foucault deemed the “literary dream of” plagues, the editors list Camus’ 1947 novel La Peste, among other works, as representative of what Foucault described as “a kind of orgiastic dream in which plague is the moment when individuals come apart and when the law is forgotten.”. This article places Camus’ novel and other works in conversation with Foucault on governmentality, subjectivation, and truth to demonstrate the ways in which individualism itself can be viewed biopolitically. In so doing, it offers an urgent intervention that speaks powerfully to and is exemplified by the current global pandemic. Plague serves both as this literary dream and as a discursive mechanism engaged simultaneously with regimes of truth and the individuals constructing them. By pairing Foucault’s historical understanding of the invention of positive technologies of power with Camus’ treatment of “the absurd” in and out of the plague context, one uncovers the interrelation of governmentality, subjectivation, and truth.

Author Biography

Adam Herpolsheimer, Beasly School of Law

Adam Herpolsheimer researches the multiplicity of intersections between law, religion, public health, sexuality, and philosophy. At the Center for Public Health Law Research at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law, they teach and conduct legal epidemiology on a number of public health law topics including but not limited to opioid prescribing limitations, abortion restrictions, and the nature of preemption as a legal mechanism.  Their doctoral work explores the implications between feminist theory and the formation of transgender identities as constructed by law, religion, and subjectivation.

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Published

2023-12-29

How to Cite

Herpolsheimer, A. (2023). Plague, Foucault, Camus . Foucault Studies, (35), 70–96. https://doi.org/10.22439/fs.i35.7078

Issue

Section

Special Issue: Biopolitical Tensions after Pandemic Times