Though Foucault is of little to no relevance for German Communication Sciences, many of his basic ideas had considerable influence on cultural and media studies. There are countless books and lots of online content available. Below find a list of the most useful websites I came across during my research for several term papers and presentations:
1. Michel-Foucault.com: A very good starting point, as it provides not only translations of selected texts, further links etc. but also digests some of the key concepts of Foucault’s theoretical framework. Especially ‘beginners’ should have a look on this site.
2. What is an author?: The original essay from 1969 translated into English. Basically a ‘must-read’ as it contains delineations of important Foucauldian concepts like authorship, author function, text, knowledge, audience and discourse.
3. Marxist.org: The first three chapters of The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969).
4. Foucault.info: A collection of freely available Foucault articles, book excerpts, interviews and further links.
5. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Comprehensive overview of Foucault’s life and work.
6. University of Minnesota: A number of helpful outlines of Foucault’s major works (including references).
7. Jon Protevi: This page offers a range of course or lecture material, respectively. No primary sources but it provides some useful summarizations and introductions into Foucault’s main works.
8. Lawrence University Wisconsin: Offers a readers-guide to What is an author – basically structures the text into five sections and tries to summarizes the key issues of the article.
There is much more web content in French, however, as my target audience mainly consists of speakers of English I left them out in this post. Moreover, here a few youtube-clips in which Foucault explains his Discipline and Punish (1975):
Again, theres is even more on youtube, such as interviews, lectures, documentaries. Just browse for ‘Michel Foucault’.
Dennis Nguyen 