Refracted Input

Michel Foucault, Entretiens radiophoniques, 1961-1983, Flammarion / VRIN / INA, 2024

I was delighted to see the publication of Foucault’s radio interviews in October 2024. Most of this material has not been readily available outside of archives until now. The editor, Henri-Paul Fruchaud is well-known for his extensive and meticulous editorial work on posthumous publications by Foucault and this volume adds to his achievements.

It is a monumental work spanning some 933 pages with transcriptions of 63 radio broadcasts made by Foucault between 1961 and 1983, the bulk of material being from the 1960s and early 1970s. Fruchaud notes some exclusions: television appearances as well as radio broadcasts made outside France and one item already included in the Dits et Ecrits collection. In radio programs made up of separate sections, only Foucault’s contribution has been retained. Amongst the appendices there is a brief timeline of Foucault’s life and career to help readers situate the various radio programs as well as a note from Agnès Chauveau, Director of the Institut national de l’audiovisuel (INA), France’s national archive of audiovisual material.

Even if this material was not originally intended for print publication and Foucault himself probably expected it to be ephemeral, what is clear is that he had a remarkable ability to produce cogent thought and argument in his spoken work and conversations. He often clarified and simplified ideas that were not easy to access in his formal written work. He was aware of this of course, remarking somewhat ironically elsewhere that people preferred reading his interviews as they saw them as a shortcut to understanding the detailed and careful argumentation of his books.

The content of the broadcasts covers Foucault’s books, debates and commentary on various current events as well as the social, cultural and intellectual concerns of his day. One finds unexpected material such as a 1982 round table on Roman gladiators with notable historians Paul Veyne, Jacques Le Goff and archaeologist historian Christian Goudineau. There’s some mild intellectual ribbing from the historians about Foucault’s presence in the forum which he goes along with happily but briefly, before making a more serious contribution.

Other surprising material includes a seven part series broadcast in 1963 titled ‘Pain and Suffering’. This series consists of a variety of interviews with the general public and ‘people in the street’ and various experts in medicine, sociology and anthropology – all with commentary by Foucault. The second in the series includes an interview with Gilles Deleuze. The interviews and commentary are interspersed with literary readings (Dante) and literature from the medical and social sciences.

It’s not clear from the transcripts if Foucault conducted the interviews with members of the public himself – I am assuming this to be the case. It would be interesting to know the background to the series. Was Foucault invited to do it? Did he propose it himself to Radio France III? In any case, it is clear that a considerable amount of work and thought went into developing the program.

In the series, we see a concern that emerges in much of Foucault’s work: a concern for the suffering and experiences of those without a voice. In the first program after some introductory illustrative sound clips, Foucault notes: ‘We have just heard voices from the street. People were approached, people who suffer every day. They had nothing to say about that suffering, their suffering except the most impoverished things, those closest to silence’ (p. 237). The first broadcast asks what pain is, the second how it is treated, then additional programs go on to look at everyday suffering, suffering in the workplace – and here we find interviews and commentary on unsafe workplaces with serious impacts on the health and well-being of the workers. After that, the discussion moves on to the hospital, then childbirth. Foucault begins the latter program stating: “Pain-free childbirth is probably one of the greatest mythological experiences of the post war period.” (p. 305). The last in the series deals with pain in childhood and old age.

Beyond these brief examples, there is much more to discover in this collection – including useful reiterations and reformulations of ideas well-known from the rest of his work. It also bears witness to the enormous scope of Foucault’s erudition and curiosity. Given its length, it may be some time before we see this work translated into English and other languages, but I’ve no doubt negotiations are already in train to bring Foucault’s words to non-French speaking audiences.

The book is available both as an ebook and in hard copy. At a purely physical and material level, in hard copy the book is a fine production with large pages and a very readable well-spaced font with an attractive amount of white space. There are decent left and right margins. The book is nicely bound and opens without effort and stays open. In a world of cost cutting when it comes to books in the humanities it is a pleasure to see such a good production.

To conclude with a final remark from Foucault: ‘I am fighting against the presumption that words are mere wind, that they don’t exist or have almost no substance, that words are just a kind of foam on the ocean of history or again, nothing but the transitory, fragile, precarious and immediately erased reflection of things – things are serious and solid and not just words. What I want to show is people are doing something when they speak.’ (p. 468)

This collection makes a solid contribution to the material body of Foucault’s work in all its diversity and gives a more substantial existence to what could have remained as the fragile, ephemeral and less readily accessible words of a radio archive.

Preliminary reviews and commentary on les Entretiens radiophoniques

It is too early as yet for extended commentary on this new volume, but the items below may be of interest.

French newspapers. Paywall protected

Le canard enchainé, 9 novembre 2024

William Bourton, in Le Soir, 20 novembre 2024.

Roger-Pol Droit in Le Monde, 21 novembre 2024.

Patrice Maniglier in Libération, 9 janvier 2025

Other French magazines

Hicham-Stéphane Afeissa in Non fiction, 23 octobre 2024

Jean-Marie Durand in Les Inrockuptibles, 30 Octobre 2025

Martin Duru in Philosophie Magazine, 22 octobre 2024

Essay review in Norwegian
Joakim Slinning Lange, “Stemmen som fortsetter etter døden (om Henri-Paul Fruchaud (red.), Michel Foucault, Entretiens radiophoniques 1961-1983). Agora. Journal for metafysisk spekulasjon, nr. 1-2, 2025 “Judith Butler”, 265-89
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18261/agora.43.1-2.12

This blog post was drafted with pen and paper. For a history of Jacques Herbin wax and inks, originally founded in 1670 see here. Kyanite du Népal has a beautiful silver shimmer which is hard to photograph. The fabulously named Visconti Comedia inferno (brown with shimmering red swirls and highlights) is also difficult to capture here. The Visconti site provides better photographs.