This volume is a guide to Foucault's most influential ideas, their contexts and the ways in which they have been put to use by a variety of critics. Examining such key concepts as power, discourse, knowledge, sexuality, subjectivity and madness, Sara Mills guides readers through the theoretical work that underpins so many disciplinary fields today. She also provides a work-by-work guide to Foucault's major texts and an annotated list of further reading, to fully equip those planning to engage with his work at a more advanced level. This volume, crucially, considers how readers new to Foucault's work might integrate some of his approaches to analysis and apply his work to their own studies.

Michel Foucault has been written with students of literature in mind, but its relevance, like that of Foucault's remarkable work, extends far beyond literary studies. For anyone seeking to understand Foucault and the complex debates engendered by his work, this volume is the essential first step.