Disorderly Families

Infamous Letters from the Bastille Archives

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Crimes & Criminals, Penology, History, France, Political Science, Politics, History & Theory
Cover of the book Disorderly Families by Arlette Farge, Michel Foucault, University of Minnesota Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Arlette Farge, Michel Foucault ISBN: 9781452951928
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press Publication: January 1, 2017
Imprint: Univ Of Minnesota Press Language: English
Author: Arlette Farge, Michel Foucault
ISBN: 9781452951928
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
Publication: January 1, 2017
Imprint: Univ Of Minnesota Press
Language: English

Drunken and debauched husbands; libertine wives; vagabonding children. These and many more are the subjects of requests for confinement written to the king of France in the eighteenth century. These letters of arrest (lettres de cachet) from France’s Ancien Régime were often associated with excessive royal power and seen as a way for the king to imprison political opponents. In Disorderly Families, first published in French in 1982, Arlette Farge and Michel Foucault collect ninety-four letters from ordinary families who, with the help of hired scribes, submitted complaints to the king to intervene and resolve their family disputes. 

Gathered together, these letters show something other than the exercise of arbitrary royal power, and offer unusual insight into the infamies of daily life. From these letters come stories of divorce and marital conflict, sexual waywardness, reckless extravagance, and abandonment. The letters evoke a fluid social space in which life in the home and on the street was regulated by the rhythms of relations between husbands and wives, or parents and children. Most impressively, these letters outline how ordinary people seized the mechanisms of power to address the king and make demands in the name of an emerging civil order.  

Arlette Farge and Michel Foucault were fascinated by the letters’ explosive qualities and by how they both illustrated and intervened in the workings of power and governmentality. Disorderly Families sheds light on Foucault’s conception of political agency and his commitment to theorizing how ordinary lives come to be touched by power. This first English translation is complete with an introduction from the book’s editor, Nancy Luxon, as well as notes that contextualize the original 1982 publication and eighteenth-century policing practices. 

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Drunken and debauched husbands; libertine wives; vagabonding children. These and many more are the subjects of requests for confinement written to the king of France in the eighteenth century. These letters of arrest (lettres de cachet) from France’s Ancien Régime were often associated with excessive royal power and seen as a way for the king to imprison political opponents. In Disorderly Families, first published in French in 1982, Arlette Farge and Michel Foucault collect ninety-four letters from ordinary families who, with the help of hired scribes, submitted complaints to the king to intervene and resolve their family disputes. 

Gathered together, these letters show something other than the exercise of arbitrary royal power, and offer unusual insight into the infamies of daily life. From these letters come stories of divorce and marital conflict, sexual waywardness, reckless extravagance, and abandonment. The letters evoke a fluid social space in which life in the home and on the street was regulated by the rhythms of relations between husbands and wives, or parents and children. Most impressively, these letters outline how ordinary people seized the mechanisms of power to address the king and make demands in the name of an emerging civil order.  

Arlette Farge and Michel Foucault were fascinated by the letters’ explosive qualities and by how they both illustrated and intervened in the workings of power and governmentality. Disorderly Families sheds light on Foucault’s conception of political agency and his commitment to theorizing how ordinary lives come to be touched by power. This first English translation is complete with an introduction from the book’s editor, Nancy Luxon, as well as notes that contextualize the original 1982 publication and eighteenth-century policing practices. 

More books from University of Minnesota Press

Cover of the book Into the Extreme by Arlette Farge, Michel Foucault
Cover of the book Extravagances by Arlette Farge, Michel Foucault
Cover of the book All about Almodóvar by Arlette Farge, Michel Foucault
Cover of the book Troubling the Family by Arlette Farge, Michel Foucault
Cover of the book There But for Fortune by Arlette Farge, Michel Foucault
Cover of the book Riot by Arlette Farge, Michel Foucault
Cover of the book Our Gang by Arlette Farge, Michel Foucault
Cover of the book We'll Be the Last Ones to Let You Down by Arlette Farge, Michel Foucault
Cover of the book Worm Work by Arlette Farge, Michel Foucault
Cover of the book Transgender Rights by Arlette Farge, Michel Foucault
Cover of the book Transnational LGBT Activism by Arlette Farge, Michel Foucault
Cover of the book Vilém Flusser by Arlette Farge, Michel Foucault
Cover of the book The Straight Line by Arlette Farge, Michel Foucault
Cover of the book Like a Loaded Weapon by Arlette Farge, Michel Foucault
Cover of the book Jakarta, Drawing the City Near by Arlette Farge, Michel Foucault
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy