De Certeau,Michel

Abstract

Michel de Certeau (1925–86) was an influential French thinker whose theories have had lasting importance in the fields of historiography and cultural studies. Born in Chambery, France, de Certeau studied at the universities of Grenoble, Paris, and Lyon from 1944 to 1950, earning degrees in classics and philosophy. At the age of 25, he joined the Society of Jesus and was ordained as a priest in 1956. After some time working abroad, de Certeau returned to graduate study at the Sorbonne and completed a doctorate in religious sciences, in order to study the early history of the Jesuit Order. He witnessed the social unrest in France in May 1968, and documented these events in a series of articles. Later that same year, these articles were collected intoThe Capture of Speech(1997[1968]), a book for which de Certeau gained a good deal of public recognition. In many ways, the events of May 1968 and the subsequent publication of TheCapturemark a general broadening of de Certeau's work to include cultural studies. Over the course of his career, he held teaching positions at several prominent universities, including the Universite de Paris‐Vincennes, the University of California, San Diego, and the École des hautes etudes en sciences sociales, Paris.