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Michel Foucault
This Is Not a Pipe
25th Anniversary Edition
Translated and edited by James Harkness. Illustrations and letters by René Magritte.
Buy Paperback
$15.95, £9.50 paperback
978-0-520-23694-3
NYP--Due 7/08
104 pages, 5 x 8 inches, 30 b/w illustrations, 3 line drawings
July 2008, Available worldwide
Categories: Art; Architecture; European Literature

"This essay not only proposes a new understanding of Magritte; it also constitutes a perfect illustration and introduction to the thought of the philosopher himself, France's great wizard of paradox."—New York Times Book Review
What does it mean to write "This is not a pipe" across a bluntly literal painting of a pipe? René Magritte's famous canvas provides the starting point for a delightful homage by French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault. Much better known for his incisive and mordant explorations of power and social exclusion, Foucault here assumes a more playful stance. By exploring the nuances and ambiguities of Magritte's visual critique of language, he finds the painter less removed than previously thought from the pioneers of modern abstraction.
One of the most important theorists of the twentieth century, Michel Foucault's (1926-1984) many influential books include Discipline and Punish, The Archeology of Knowledge, The History of Sexuality, and The Discourse on Language.