The plague and the Panopticon
Camus, with and against the total critiques of modernity
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4480763 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Matthew Sharpe (Deakin University), Matt Sharpe (0000-0002-8165-5775, Deakin University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 133 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 59-79 |
| Publication date | 2016-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Thesis Eleven (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0725-5136 • E-ISSN: 1461-7455 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0725513616636383 |
| OpenAlex | W2335697605 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 20 |
Albert Camus's 1947 novel La Peste and 1948 drama L'État de Siège, allegories of totalitarian power using the figure of the plague (Part I), remarkably anticipate Foucault's celebrated genealogical analyses of modern power (Part II). Indeed, reading Foucault after Camus highlights a fact little-remarked in Discipline and Punish: namely, that the famous chapter on the 'Panopticon' begins by analysing the measures taken in early modern Vincennes following the advent of plague. Part III argues that, although Camus was cited as an inspiration by the nouveaux philosophes, he does not accept the reactionary motif of the total bankruptcy of the modern cultural and political worlds as hopelessly implicated in the totalitarian crimes. Indeed, Part IV highlights how Camus defends modern, descriptive scientific rationality against its totalitarian appropriations, alongside 'the power of passion, doubt, happiness, and imaginative invention' - positions which Part V suggests as Camus's continuing poignancy and relevance in the period after post-structuralism (Camus, 1952: 301
Art · Epistemology · Exegesis · Existentialism · Literature · Panopticon · Passion · Plague (disease) · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Reactionary · Theology · Will to power · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · History · Law · Philosophy · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism · Political Theology and Sovereignty
SIX. Criminal Law in National Socialist Germany
The State of Exception
Criminal Law in National-Socialist Germany
The Burden of Responsibility
The Subject and Power
Nietzsche, Genealogy, History
Dialectic of Enlightenment, 2011
Homo Sacer
Democracy and Totalitarianism
The Wind from the East
The philosophical discourse of modernity
The origins of totalitarianism
The Critique of Impure Reason
The Nouvelle Philosophie and Foucault
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |