How to Read Foucault's Discipline and Punish

Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish is one of the best-selling works of critical theory and a key text on many undergraduate courses. However, it is a long, difficult text which makes Anne Schwan and Stephen Shapiro's excellent step-by-step reading guide a welcome addition to the How to Read Theory series.Undergraduates across a wide range of disciplines are expected to have a solid understanding of Foucault's key terms, which have become commonplace in critical thinking today. While there are many texts that survey Foucault's thought, these are often confusing biographical précis that give little in the way of robust explanation and discussion. In contrast How to Read Foucault's Discipline and Punish takes a plain-speaking approach, specifically designed to give students a through understanding of one of the most important texts in contemporary cultural theory.

Anne Schwan is Lecturer in English Literature at Edinburgh Napier University.
Stephen Shapiro is Professor of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick.

Rationale
Overview
Note on translation
Part One: Torture
1. The body of the condemned
2. The spectacle of the scaffold
Part Two: Punishment
1. Generalized punishment
2. The gentle way in punishment
Part Three: Discipline
1. Docile bodies
2. The means of correct training
3. Panopticism
Part Four: Prison
1. Complete and austere institutions
2. Illegalities and delinquency
3. The carceral
Suggestions for further reading
Index