ABSTRACT
The engagement of French intellectuals in the 1970s marked the emergence of new forms of public intervention and a redefinition of the relations between cultural and political production. Associated with an intense dialogue with the militant groups of the extra-parliamentary left, instituted or strengthened after the protests of 1968, the mobilization of the main figures of French thought triggered the incorporation of themes such as "gauchisme", which meant to establish, although by means not always evident, a deep and tense dialogue with Marx and Marxisms. It was a time of crossed and troublesome affiliations, of strategic alliances and of great organizational inventiveness, gathered and accumulated in the intellectual devices of engagement proposed by activists and prominent figures in the fields of Philosophy and the Social Sciences, among them Michel Foucault and the Groupe d'Information sour les Prisons (GIP). The case of Foucault's engagement with the theme of imprisonment condenses the main political vectors of the 1970s social conjuncture, manifesting the contradictions of a theory strongly impacted by the militant experience. The "GIP effect" on Foucault marks at the same time the horizon and limits of his criticism and the intellectual legacy of his work. The current article analysis this historical context with the aid of documents from Foucault's archive, deposited at the Institut Mémoires de l'Édition Contemporaine (IMEC), and the collection on militant groups of 68 of the Bibliothèque de Documentation Internationale Contemporaine (BDIC)
Michel Foucault; May 1968; political engagement; intellectuals; prison