Upon Michel Foucault’s death, 20 years ago this month, the historian Paul Veyne wrote in Le Monde that the philosopher’s work was “the most important event of thought in our century”. The rest of the world was all too ready to agree, and Foucault has become one of the most celebrated philosophers of our times, lauded as the godfather of postmodernism and extending his influence widely and deeply in academe.
Foucault lords over the fields of history, literary theory, queer theory, medicine, philosophy and sociology, and his ideas have permeated society in general. His best-known theses, that the concept of “truth” is relative, that “madness” is a cultural creation and that “history” is mere storytelling, are now familiar fare at enlightened dinner parties (and those contemptuous inverted commas are mandatory).
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