Notes on Contributors Introduction Life Struggles: War, Disciplinary Power and Biopolitics--J.Reid 'Power's ode to itself': History, Power and Poetry in the Post-Waterloo Writing of Hazlitt, Byron and Shelley: S.Bainbridge Sovereignty, Biopolitics, and the Use of Literature: Michel Foucault and Kathy Acker--A.Houen Michel Foucault: Biopolitics and Biology--J.Marks Biopower, Biological Racism and Eugenics--C.Hanson Michel Foucault: Defending Society and the Idea of Race--D.Macey War and Peace, or Governmentality as the Ruin of Democracy--L.Hartley Necropolitics--A.Mbembe A Geopolitical Blindspot in Foucault's Thought: Biopolitics, Torture and Indefinite Detention in the Colonial World--S.Morton 'Manual for a Raid' and 'Henslowe's Diary': Foucault and the Multiple Meanings of the Document--R.Fensome Foucault, Auden and two New York Septembers--S.Bygrave Notes Index

This book focuses on the relationship between literary culture, power, society and war. It assesses the critical importance of Michel Foucault's lecture series Society Must Be Defended for contemporary debates about war and terror in literary and cultural studies, as well as social and political thought.