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Title: The History of Sexuality : An Introduction by Michel Foucault ISBN: 0-679-72469-9 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 14 April, 1990 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.09 (23 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Misinterpretation by Reviewers
Comment: This text is perhaps Foucault's most well-known, although it might not be his best. It is an important work, so if you are at all interested in sex as an abstract and organizing principle, this is a must-read. (Note: it is not a history in the proper sense of the term). While not a terribly confusing book, it is WIDELY misunderstood, including by many of the reviewers. First off, do not make the mistake of reading the first section as Foucault's thesis (it may seem that way)--he is presenting the common approach to the issue, one that he will eventually CHALLENGE. "Sex" was never repressed--on the contrary, there has been an explosion of discourses, a productive manifestation of power. Foucault admits that this was partially organized through technologies of confession, normalization, etc.-BUT THAT IS NOT THE MAIN THRUST. The main idea of the text is that there is no commanding, Platonic principle "sex" that we must uncover or saturate ourselves with, and hence, while prudery seems suspect, liberation through "sex" or "sex-desire" is entirely nonsensical, since sex is subordinate to sexuality and not vica-versa. Foucault, with much uncertainty, thereby envisions a different economy of bodies and pleasures, more like the ars erotica, that focuses on the local and individual, with all their multiple possibilities for deeper value and communication. Hence, depite what people make of Foucault's life, this book is more "conservative" that one would imagine... It is ideal for anyone who wants to free themselves from either a deep-rooted fear of sex or the incessant demands sex makes from on high (from the media, etc.) To Foucault, the idea that sex is seen as a requirement for one's deepest sense of being is absurd (and almost comical). A fascinating exploration which you might have to read twice, the History of Sexuality demonstrates Foucault's otherwordly insight. Do not fall into the traps I mentioned--Foucault's purpose here is not to free sex from all controls, but merely from one in particular--the reader is given the freedom to reflect and counter it with a more positive and meaningful grasp of his own sexuality and sexual experience.
Rating: 5
Summary: You will never see the world or yourself the same way again
Comment: There is no doubt in my mind that Foucault is one of the most important thinkers of the 20th century and without a doubt among the most influential. His philosophical inquiry into material history of systems and their construction/perpetuation has revolutionized the way in which we see the world around us and has led to fruitful and fascinating inquiries in the field of cultural studies.
No volume articulates Foucault's ideas with greater clarity than this first volume of his history of sexuality. More a manifesto than a true history, Foucault outlines with astonishing deftness the ways in which our perceptions are molded by systems of knowledge and power. These systems, which he describes as "intentional but non-subjective" (in other words, having a purpose and goal, but not directed by any guiding intelligence) are like natural forces that shape and mold our understanding of the world while they perpetuate themselves. His analysis of the formulation of ideas of sexuality in the 18th and 19th centuries illustrates his argument both forcefully and clearly. Readers may, by the way, want to compare Foucault's ideas with Louis Althusser's in his essay on the Industrial State Apparatus in his collection "Lenin and Philosophy," which provides a similarly materialists, but more politically Marxist, view of how subjectivity is constructed and limited by existing modes of power.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Revolutionary Outline of Power
Comment: Philosopher? Historian? Better to call Michel Foucault just a plain old thinker.
First off, this book isn't just the history of sexuality, but concerned specifically with debunking the repression thesis about sex (that sex was merely controlled by the state and repressed) and replacing it with a description of the overabundance of sexual discourse and the mechanisms of dispersal of this sexual discourse.
But more importantly, for those who are new to Foucault and his ideas, this is a great book introducing his notions of power and power/knowledge.
Daniel Clausen
daniel clausen dot com
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Title: The History of Sexuality : The Use of Pleasure by MICHEL FOUCAULT ISBN: 0394751221 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 14 April, 1990 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The History of Sexuality : The Care of the Self by Michel Foucault ISBN: 0394741552 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 28 November, 1988 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Discipline & Punish : The Birth of the Prison by Michel Foucault ISBN: 0679752552 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 25 April, 1995 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Gender Trouble (Tenth Anniversary Edition) by Judith P. Butler ISBN: 0415924995 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: September, 1999 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Madness and Civilization : A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason by Michel Foucault ISBN: 067972110X Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 28 November, 1988 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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