''The Passion of Michel Foucault'' is a biography of the French philosopher Michel Foucault authored by the American philosopher James Miller. It was first published in the United States by

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest pu ...

in 1993. Within the book, Miller made the claim that Foucault's experiences in the gay sadomasochism community during the time he taught at Berkeley directly influenced his political and philosophical works. Miller's ideas have been rebuked by certain Foucault scholars as being either simply misdirected,Scialabba, George
''Review: "The Passion of Michel Foucault by James Miller."''
Boston Globe, 30 January 1993. a sordid reading of his life and works,Rubenstein, Diane 1995 Modern Fiction Studies 41.3–4 681–698 or as a politically motivated, intentional misreading.

Reception

Writing for ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'', book critic George Scialabba described ''The Passion of Michel Foucault'' as an "intensely interesting" work which provides an "astoundingly vivid though non-prurient description of (mainly homosexual) sadomasochism". The historian of science Roger Smith writes that Miller turns Foucault's life "into a drama for our times".

References

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Passion of Michel Foucault 1993 non-fiction books Biographies about writers Books about Michel Foucault Books by James Miller (academic) English-language books Simon & Schuster books BDSM literature