Herculine Adélaïde Barbin, later known as Abel Barbin, was a French intersex person who was assigned female at birth and raised in a convent, but was later reclassified as male by a court of law, after an affair and physical examination. She is known for her memoir, Herculine Barbin, which was studied by Michel Foucault. Her birthday is marked as Intersex Day of Remembrance.
Title page of Ambroise Tardieu's 1872 book in which excerpts of Herculine Barbin's memoirs were first published.
Paul-Michel Foucault was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault's theories primarily address the relationships between power and knowledge, and how they are used as a form of social control through societal institutions. Though often cited as a structuralist and postmodernist, Foucault rejected these labels. His thought has influenced academics, especially those working in communication studies, anthropology, psychology, sociology, criminology, cultural studies, literary theory, feminism, Marxism and critical theory.
Foucault in 1974
In the early 1950s, Foucault came under the influence of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who remained a core influence on his work throughout his life.
Foucault adored the work of Raymond Roussel and wrote a literary study of it.
Graves of Michel Foucault, his mother (right) and his father (left) in Vendeuvre-du-Poitou
