Les hommes de poussière

Abstract

This article  investigates the concepts of the "plebs" and the "infamous men" (or "men of dust") within Michel Foucault’s thought, focusing on the famous case dossier of Pierre Rivière. The author illustrates how Foucault’s chance encounter with the memoir written by this 19th-century parricidal peasant served as a major catalyst for analyzing marginalized, silent existences intersected by mechanisms of power, penal law, and psychiatry.

The study explores the tension between two forms of the plebs: the "positive" or proletarian plebs, integrated into organized political struggles, and the "negative," anarchic, and heterogeneous plebs (criminals, vagrants, the insane) embodied by Rivière. Examining Foucault’s fascination with the aesthetic beauty of Rivière's discourse as well as contemporary political events (such as the Iranian Revolution), Brossat highlights the paradoxes, limits, and critical power of Foucault's perspective on resistance and insubordination.