Abstract

Forty years since the Attica revolt and the subsequent massacre, which took place in September 1971, we publish the Italian translation of an interview Michel Foucault gave after a visit to Attica prison in April 1972 and that was then published on the New Left journal Telos two years later, in 1974. In the interview, Foucault presents many of the elements that will later find development in his masterpiece Discipline and Punish. Furthermore, he delves with the issue of the politicisation and radicalisation of the prisoners' move­ment in France, in which he had been involved. The interview is preceded by a short introduction by Dario Melossi commenting on the historical context of Foucault's interview and on a passage where Foucault deals with what he calls "Durkheimian sociology".