Культурология: Дайджест №1/2012

Culture of oneself in the works of Foucault" The concept of "culture of oneself" (la cultur de sua) is introduced in Foucault's later works. It first appears in The Hermeneutics of the Subject - lectures delivered by Foucault at the Collège de France during the 1981/1982 academic year. It can be found in the second and third volumes of "The History of Sexuality" published in 1984. In "Care of the Self," there is a separate chapter titled "Culture of Oneself." The publisher of "The Hermeneutics of the Subject," Frédéric Gros, notes that it gives the impression of a rather concise fragment from the course delivered at the Collège de France, where the concept of "la cultur de sua" is presented on a much larger scale. According to Gros, the books published in 1984 ("The Use of Pleasure" and "Care of the Self") did not entirely satisfy Foucault. He seemed to have planned another concluding volume in which the theme of culture of oneself could be further expanded and detached from the problematization of sexuality. The significance of the theme and the concept of "culture of oneself" for Foucault is also evident from the fact that one of the five folders containing draft materials for the course is titled "Culture of Oneself - Draft." Later on, alongside "culture of oneself," Foucault introduces the concept of "corporeal culture."