Who was Pierre Rivière? Introduction to the special issue

Abstract

Foucault's (1975) edited book, I, Pierre Rivière, having slaughtered my mother, my sister and my brother... A case of parricide in the 19th century, includes the court documents and newspaper reports from the 1835 trial of Pierre Rivière, Pierre Rivière's memoir written while in prison, and the " analytic notes" written by Foucault and his colleagues. Whereas the court focused on the question of whether Pierre Rivière was of sane mind or not, Foucault and his colleagues sought to avoid the closure that such categorical thinking invites the reader into. This paper introduces the story of Pierre Rivière, and opens up some of the questions to be addressed in this special issue. The papers exami..