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the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: The History of Sexuality Michel Foucault, 2008 Michel Foucault's The Will to Knowledge is the first part of his influential trilogy of books on the history of sexuality. He argues that the recent explosion of discussion about sex in the West means that, far from being liberated, we are in the process of making a science of sexuality that is devoted to the analysis of desire rather than the increase of pleasure. This is a brilliant polemic from a groundbreaking radical intellectual. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: The History of Sexuality Michel Foucault, 1990-04-14 Why we are so fascinated with sex and sexuality—from the preeminent philosopher of the 20th century. Michel Foucault offers an iconoclastic exploration of why we feel compelled to continually analyze and discuss sex, and of the social and mental mechanisms of power that cause us to direct the questions of what we are to what our sexuality is. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: Foucault's History of Sexuality Mark G. E. Kelly, Mark Kelly, 2013 In the first volume of his History of Sexuality, 'The Will to Knowledge', Foucault weaves together the most influential theoretical account of sexuality since Freud. Now, this is the first reading guide to Foucault's dense and sometimes confusing text. Mark Kelly systematically unpacks the intricacies of Foucault's dense and sometimes confusing exposition, in a straightforward way, putting it in its historical and theoretical context. He looks at the book, its structure and philosophical significance, and corrects several key mistranslations in the only available English version of the 'Will to Knowledge'. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: The History of Sexuality: 1 Michel Foucault, 2020 We talk about sex more and more, but are we liberated? Michel Foucault's landmark account explores our evolving attitudes to sex, and shows how are making a science of sex which is devoted to the analysis of desire rather than the increase in pleasure. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: Sexuality Michel Foucault, 2021-07-13 Michel Foucault’s The History of Sexuality—the first volume of which was published in 1976—exerts a vast influence across the humanities and social sciences. However, Foucault’s interest in the history of sexuality began as early as the 1960s, when he taught two courses on the subject. These lectures offer crucial insight into the development of Foucault’s thought yet have remained unpublished until recently. This book presents Foucault’s lectures on sexuality for the first time in English. In the first series, held at the University of Clermont-Ferrand in 1964, Foucault asks how sexuality comes to be constituted as a scientific body of knowledge within Western culture and why it derived from the analysis of “perversions”—morbidity, homosexuality, fetishism. The subsequent course, held at the experimental university at Vincennes in 1969, shows how Foucault’s theories were reoriented by the events of May 1968; he refocuses on the regulatory nature of the discourse of sexuality and how it serves economic, social, and political ends. Examining creators of political and literary utopias in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, from Sade to Fourier to Marcuse, who attempted to integrate “natural” sexualities, including transgressive forms, into social and economic life, Foucault elaborates a double critique of the naturalization and the liberation of sexuality. Together, the lectures span a range of interests, from abnormality to heterotopias to ideology, and they offer an unprecedented glimpse into the evolution of Foucault’s transformative thinking on sexuality. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: Power/Knowledge Michel Foucault, 1980-11-12 Michel Foucault has become famous for a series of books that have permanently altered our understanding of many institutions of Western society. He analyzed mental institutions in the remarkable Madness and Civilization; hospitals in The Birth of the Clinic; prisons in Discipline and Punish; and schools and families in The History of Sexuality. But the general reader as well as the specialist is apt to miss the consistent purposes that lay behind these difficult individual studies, thus losing sight of the broad social vision and political aims that unified them. Now, in this superb set of essays and interviews, Foucault has provided a much-needed guide to Foucault. These pieces, ranging over the entire spectrum of his concerns, enabled Foucault, in his most intimate and accessible voice, to interpret the conclusions of his research in each area and to demonstrate the contribution of each to the magnificent -- and terrifying -- portrait of society that he was patiently compiling. For, as Foucault shows, what he was always describing was the nature of power in society; not the conventional treatment of power that concentrates on powerful individuals and repressive institutions, but the much more pervasive and insidious mechanisms by which power reaches into the very grain of individuals, touches their bodies and inserts itself into their actions and attitudes, their discourses, learning processes and everyday lives Foucault's investigations of prisons, schools, barracks, hospitals, factories, cities, lodgings, families, and other organized forms of social life are each a segment of one of the most astonishing intellectual enterprises of all time -- and, as this book proves, one which possesses profound implications for understanding the social control of our bodies and our minds. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: The Natural History of Sexuality in Early America Greta LaFleur, 2020-08-04 How natural history made sex scientific in the eighteenth century. If sexology—the science of sex—came into being sometime in the nineteenth century, then how did statesmen, scientists, and everyday people make meaning out of sex before that point? In The Natural History of Sexuality in Early America, Greta LaFleur demonstrates that eighteenth-century natural history—the study of organic life in its environment—actually provided the intellectual foundations for the later development of the scientific study of sex. Natural historians understood the human body to be a porous envelope, eminently vulnerable to its environment. Yet historians of sexuality have tended to rely on archival evidence of genital-based or otherwise bodily sex acts for source material. Through careful readings of both elite natural history texts and popular print forms that circulated widely in the British North American colonies—among them Barbary captivity, execution, cross-dressing, and anti-vice narratives—LaFleur traces the development of a broad knowledge of sexuality defined in terms of the dynamic relationship between the human and the natural, social, physical, and climatic milieu. At the heart of this book is the question of how to produce a history of sexuality for an era in which modern vocabularies for sex and desire were unavailable. LaFleur demonstrates how environmental logic was used to explain sexual behavior on a broad scale, not just among the educated elite who wrote and read natural historical texts. LaFleur reunites the history of sexuality with the history of race, demonstrating how they were bound to one another by the emergence of the human sciences. Ultimately, The Natural History of Sexuality in Early America not only rewrites all dominant scholarly narratives of eighteenth-century sexual behavior but also poses a major intervention into queer theoretical understandings of the relationship between sex and the subject. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: What is Sexual History? Jeffrey Weeks, 2016-06-10 Until the 1970s the history of sexuality was a marginalized practice. Today it is a flourishing field, increasingly integrated into the mainstream and producing innovative insights into the ways in which societies shape and are shaped by sexual values, norms, identities and desires. In this book, Jeffrey Weeks, one of the leading international scholars in the subject, sets out clearly and concisely how sexual history has developed, and its implications for our understanding of the ways we live today. The emergence of a new wave of feminism and lesbian and gay activism in the 1970s transformed the subject, heavily influenced by new trends in social and cultural history, radical sociological insights and the impact of Michel Foucault’s work. The result was an increasing emphasis on the historical shaping of sexuality, and on the existence of many different sexual meanings and cultures on a global scale. With chapters on, amongst others, lesbian, gay and queer history, feminist sexual history, the mainstreaming of sexual history, and the globalization of sexual history, What is Sexual History? is an indispensable guide to these developments. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: Queer International Relations Cynthia Weber, 2016 This book puts International Relations scholarship and Queer Studies scholarship in conversation to tell a story about how sovereignty and sexuality are entangled in international relations theory and policy through numerous figurations of 'the homosexual' - as 'the underdeveloped', 'the un-developable', 'the unwanted im/migrant', 'the terrorist', 'the gay rights holder', 'the gay patriot' and Eurovision-winner Conchita Wurst's 'bearded lady'-- |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: On the Government of the Living Michel Foucault, 2016-03-08 With these lectures Foucault inaugurates his investigations of truth-telling in the ethical domain of practices of techniques of the self. How and why, he asks, does the government of men require those subject to power to be subjects who must tell the truth about themselves? -- Publisher's website. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: Rethinking Sexuality David H.J. Larmour, Paul Allen Miller, Charles Platter, 1998 In a collection of provocative essays, historians and literary theorists assess the influence of Michel Foucault and his HISTORY OF SEXUALITY on the study of classics. The essays bring to light the nature of the intimate lives of men and women in the ancient Mediterranean world--and demonstrate the importance of the HISTORY OF SEXUALITY for other fields of study, such as women's history, modern sexuality, and more. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: What is Gender History? Sonya O. Rose, 2013-04-22 This book provides a short and accessible introduction to the field of gender history, one that has vastly expanded in scope and substance since the mid 1970s. Paying close attention to both classic texts in the field and the latest literature, the author examines the origins and development of the field and elucidates current debates and controversies. She highlights the significance of race, class and ethnicity for how gender affects society, culture and politics as well as delving into histories of masculinity. The author discusses in a clear and straightforward manner the various methods and approaches used by gender historians. Consideration is given to how the study of gender illuminates the histories of revolution, war and nationalism, industrialization and labor relations, politics and citizenship, colonialism and imperialism using as examples research dealing with the histories of a number of areas across the globe. Written by one of the leading scholars in this vibrant field, What is Gender History? will be the ideal introduction for students of all levels. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: The History of Sexuality: 3 Michel Foucault, 2020 Foucault explored the whole body of literature from the Golden Age of Rome to reveal amongst philosophers and physicians of that era a mistrust of pleasure and a growing anxiety over sexual activities and their consequences. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: The Other Victorians Steven Marcus, 1969 |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: Gender, Pleasure, and Violence Agnieszka Kościańska, 2021-01-01 Behind the Iron Curtain, the politics of sexuality and gender were, in many ways, more progressive than the West. While Polish citizens undoubtedly suffered under the oppressive totalitarianism of socialism, abortion was legal, clear laws protected victims of rape, and it was relatively easy to legally change one's gender. In Gender, Pleasure, and Violence, Agnieszka Kościańska reveals that sexologists—experts such as physicians, therapists, and educators—not only treated patients but also held sex education classes at school, published regular columns in the press, and authored highly popular sex manuals that sold millions of copies. Yet strict gender roles within the home meant that true equality was never fully within reach. Drawing on interviews, participant observation, and archival work, Kościańska shares how professions like sexologists defined the notions of sexual pleasure and sexual violence under these sweeping cultural changes. By tracing the study of sexual human behavior as it was developed and professionalized in Poland since the 1960s, Gender, Pleasure, and Violence explores how the collapse of socialism brought both restrictions in gender rights and new opportunities. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: The History of Sexuality, Vol. 2 Michel Foucault, 1990-04-14 In this sequel to The History of Sexuality, Volume I: An Introduction, the brilliantly original French thinker who died in 1984 gives an analysis of how the ancient Greeks perceived sexuality. Throughout The Use of Pleasure Foucault analyzes an irresistible array of ancient Greek texts on eroticism as he tries to answer basic questions: How in the West did sexual experience become a moral issue? And why were other appetites of the body, such as hunger, and collective concerns, such as civic duty, not subjected to the numberless rules and regulations and judgments that have defined, if not confined, sexual behavior? |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: Sexology in Culture Lucy Bland, Laura Doan, 1998 The key founders of sexology, the science of desire, were Havelock Ellis, Richard von Krafft-Ebing, and Magnus Hirschfeld. This volume examines the impact of their writings on English-speaking culture from the 1880s to the early 1940s. How influential a field was sexology during this period, and how much power did sexologists wield? What was the impact of their work on popular and official attitudes to sex? Lucy Bland and Laura Doan have brought together leading historians of sex, cultural and literary critics, and scholars in gay, lesbian, and queer studies, to reassess current debates on sexology in light of its history. They address issues such as the relation of sexual science to the law, government policy, journalism, eugenics programs, marriage and sex manuals, and literary representation. They also map out new readings of transsexuality and bisexuality, and the centrality of race within sexology. Sexology in Culture and its companion Sexology Uncensored will interest all those concerned with understanding modern sexual discourse in its historical context. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: The Emergence of Sexuality Arnold Ira Davidson, 2001 In this book, Arnold Davidson elaborates a method for considering the history of concepts and the nature of scientific knowledge, a method he calls historical epistemology. He applies this to the history of sexuality, with consequences for our understanding of desire, abnormality, and sexuality. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: Heinrich Kaan's "Psychopathia Sexualis" (1844) Heinrich Kaan, 2016-10-25 With Heinrich Kaan's book we have then what could be called the date of birth, or in any case the date of the emergence, of sexuality and sexual aberrations in the psychiatric field. Michel Foucault, Abnormal: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1974–1975. Heinrich Kaan's fascinating work—part medical treatise, part sexual taxonomy, part activist statement, and part anti-onanist tract—takes us back to the origins of sexology. He links the sexual instinct to the imagination for the first time, creating what Foucault called a unified field of sexual abnormality. Kaan's taxonomy consists of six sexual aberrations: masturbation, pederasty, lesbian love, necrophilia, bestiality, and the violation of statues. Kaan not only inaugurated the field of sexology, but played a significant role in the regimes of knowledge production and discipline about psychiatric and sexual subjects. As Benjamin Kahan argues in his Introduction, Kaan's text crucially enables us to see how homosexuality replaced masturbation as the central concern of Euro-American sexual regulation. Kaan's work (translated into English for the first time here) opens a new window onto the history of sexuality and the history of sexology and reconfigures our understanding of Richard von Krafft-Ebing's book of the same name, published some forty years later. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: Foucault and the Kamasutra Sanjay K. Gautam, 2016-06-22 Gautam has here laid out the first serious reading of Michel Foucault in relation to key Sanskrit texts, and--what may be a surprise to many--he has written the first book-length work in English on the nature and origin of the Kamasutra. Gautam also takes up the Natyasastra (the Kamasutra's twin), locating in the first the themes of sexual-erotic pleasure, and locating in the second the classical Indian view of theater, music, dance, and aesthetic pleasure. The book shows how closely intertwined the history of erotics in ancient Indian culture is with the history of theater-aesthetics. Foucault provides a framework for opening up the intellectual horizon of Indian thought; it is his distinction between ars erotics (erotic arts) and scientia sexualis (science of sexuality) that fuels Gautam's exploration of the courtesan as symbol of both erotic and aesthetic pleasure, particularly in her role as a wife to her patron, which entails the morphing of erotics into a form of theater. The scope broadens ambitiously, to an inquiry on the nature of knowledge formation, erotics, theater, and gender relations in premodern Indian society and culture--as they converged on the historical figures of the courtesan and her male counterpart, the dandy. Gautam's twining of aims and subjects--Foucault's western philosophy of pleasure and India's classic text on eros (anchored in art and aesthetics)--transforms both the modern and the ancient texts with new understandings, and as new forms of investigating erotics and subjectivity itself. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: Sex, Politics and Society , 2014-05-22 A pioneering study which has become an established classic in its field, Sex, Politics and Society provides a lucid and comprehensive analysis of the transformations of British sexual life from 1800 to the present. These changes are firmly located in the wider context of social change, from industrialization and the experience of Empire through the establishment of the welfare state to the rise of new social movements, such as feminism and gay liberation, and new forms of social conservatism. Now fully revised and updated, and with a new chapter bringing the story right up to date, this new edition considers: the transformation of the sexual world through globalization and the internet the changing impact of the AIDS pandemic over the last thirty years the influence of new currents in social and cultural theory on the study of sexuality the gradual depoliticization and mainstreaming of sexuality within historical study Combining rich empirical detail with innovative theoretical insights, Sex, Politics and Society remains at the cutting edge of the subject and this third edition will inspire and provoke a whole new generation of readers in history, sociology, social policy, and the study of sexuality. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: A Companion to Greek and Roman Sexualities Thomas K. Hubbard, 2013-11-21 A Companion to Greek and Roman Sexualities presents a comprehensive collection of original essays relating to aspects of gender and sexuality in the classical world. Views the various practices and discursive contexts of sexuality systematically and holistically Discusses Greece and Rome in each chapter, with sensitivity to the continuities and differences between the two classical civilizations Addresses the classical influence on the understanding of later ages and religion Covers artistic and literary genres, various social environments of sexual conduct, and the technical disciplines of medicine, magic, physiognomy, and dream interpretation Features contributions from more than 40 top international scholars |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: Sexual Knowledge Britta McEwen, 2012-02-01 Vienna’s unique intellectual, political, and religious traditions had a powerful impact on the transformation of sexual knowledge in the early twentieth century. Whereas turn-of-the-century sexology, as practiced in Vienna as a medical science, sought to classify and heal individuals, during the interwar years, sexual knowledge was employed by a variety of actors to heal the social body: the truncated, diseased, and impoverished population of the newly created Republic of Austria. Based on rich source material, this book charts cultural changes that are hallmarks of the modern era, such as the rise of the companionate marriage, the role of expert advice in intimate matters, and the body as a source of pleasure and anxiety. These changes are evidence of a dramatic shift in attitudes from a form of scientific inquiry largely practiced by medical specialists to a social reform movement led by and intended for a wider audience that included workers, women, and children. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: Shaping Sexual Knowledge Lutz Sauerteig, Roger Davidson, 2009-01-13 The history of sex education enables us to gain valuable insights into the cultural constructions of what different societies have defined as 'normal' sexuality and sexual health. Yet, the history of sex education has only recently attracted the full attention of historians of modern sexuality. Shaping Sexual Knowledge: A Cultural History of Sex Education in Twentieth Century Europe makes a considerable contribution not only to the cultural history of sexual enlightenment and identity in modern Europe, but also to the history of childhood and adolescence. The essays collected in this volume treat sex education in the broadest sense, incorporating all aspects of the formal and informal shaping of sexual knowledge and awareness of the young. The volume, therefore, not only addresses officially-sanctioned and regulated sex education delivered within the school system and regulated by the State and in some cases the Church, but also the content, iconography and experience of sexual enlightenment within the private sphere of the family and as portrayed through the media. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: A Room of One's Own Virginia Woolf, 2022-11-13 In 'A Room of One's Own,' Virginia Woolf constructs a sharply detailed and profoundly influential critique of the patriarchal limitations imposed on female writers and intellectuals. First published in 1929, this extended essay transcends its original lecture format, utilizing a fictional veil to delve into the intersection of women with literary creation and representation. Woolf's prose is fluid and exacting, a rally for recognition orchestrated in the cadence of narrative fiction, yet grounded in the stark realities of the feminist struggle for intellectual autonomy and recognition. This resourceful mingling of fact and fiction situates Woolf among the vanguard of feminist literary critique, providing context and commentary to the historical suppression of women's voices within the established literary canon. Virginia Woolf, with her exceptional literary prowess, embarks on this essay from a position of lived experience and recognition of the broader socio-historical currents of her time. Her own encounters with gender-based barriers and the psychological insights she developed in her broader oeuvre fuel the essay's core argument. The provenance of her writing in 'A Room of One's Own'—stemming from the dynamics of her personal journey and societal observations—elucidates the necessity of financial independence and intellectual freedom for the creative output of female authors. Woolf's narrative competence and critical acumen position her not only as a luminary of modernist literature but also as a vital provocateur in the discourse of gender equality. 'A Room of One's Own' remains a fundamental recommendation for readers seeking not only to understand the historical plight and literary silencing of women but also to appreciate the enduring relevance of Woolf's argument. Scholars, feminists, and bibliophiles alike will find in Woolf's essay an enduring testament to the necessity of giving voice to the voiceless and space to the confined. It is a rallying cry for the creation of a literary world that acknowledges and celebrates the contributions of all of its constituents, one where the measure of talent is not distorted by the filter of gender bias. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: The Left Hand of Darkness Ursula K. Le Guin, 1987-03-15 50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION—WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY DAVID MITCHELL AND A NEW AFTERWORD BY CHARLIE JANE ANDERS Ursula K. Le Guin’s groundbreaking work of science fiction—winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards. A lone human ambassador is sent to the icebound planet of Winter, a world without sexual prejudice, where the inhabitants’ gender is fluid. His goal is to facilitate Winter’s inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the strange, intriguing culture he encounters... Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: The Order of Things Michel Foucault, 2005-08-18 Possibly one of the most significant, yet most overlooked, works of the twentieth century, it was The Order of Things that established Foucault's reputation as an intellectual giant. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: Foucault and Classical Antiquity Wolfgang Detel, 2010-11-04 This 2005 book is a critical examination of Michel Foucault's relation to ancient Greek thought, in particular his famous analysis of Greek history of sexuality. Wolfgang Detel offers an understanding of Foucault's theories of power and knowledge based on modern analytical theories of science and concepts of power. He offers a complex reading of the texts which Foucault discusses, covering topics such as Aristotle's ethics and theory of sex, Hippocratic dietetics, the earliest treatises on economics, and Plato's theory of love. The result is a philosophically rich and probing critique of Foucault's later writings, and a persuasive account of the relation between ethics, power and knowledge in classical antiquity. His book will have a wide appeal to readers interested in Foucault and in Greek thought and culture. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: The Foucault Reader Michel Foucault, 1984-11-12 Michel Foucault was one of the most influential philosophical thinkers in the contemporary world, someone whose work has affected the teaching of half a dozen disciplines ranging from literary criticism to the history of criminology. But of his many books, not one offers a satisfactory introduction to the entire complex body of his work. The Foucault Reader was commissioned precisely to serve that purpose. The Reader contains selections from each area of Foucault's work as well as a wealth of previously unpublished writings, including important material written especially for this volume, the preface to the long-awaited second volume of The History of Sexuality, and interviews with Foucault himself, in the course of which he discussed his philosophy at first hand and with unprecedented candor. This philosophy comprises an astonishing intellectual enterprise: a minute and ongoing investigation of the nature of power in society. Foucault's analyses of this power as it manifests itself in society, schools, hospitals, factories, homes, families, and other forms of organized society are brought together in The Foucault Reader to create an overview of this theme and of the broad social and political vision that underlies it. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: Lectures on the Will to Know Michel Foucault, 2014-12-02 Lectures on the Will to Know reminds us that Michel Foucault's work only ever had one object: truth. Here, he builds on his earlier work, Discipline and Punish, to explore the relationship between tragedy, conflict, and truth-telling. He also explores the different forms of truth-telling, and their relation to power and the law. The publication of Lectures on the Will to Know marks a milestone in Foucault's reception, and it will no longer be possible to read him in the same way as before. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: Sex, Time, and Power Leonard Shlain, 2004-08-03 As in the bestselling The Alphabet Versus the Goddess, Leonard Shlain’s provocative new book promises to change the way readers view themselves and where they came from. Sex, Time, and Power offers a tantalizing answer to an age-old question: Why did big-brained Homo sapiens suddenly emerge some 150,000 years ago? The key, according to Shlain, is female sexuality. Drawing on an awesome breadth of research, he shows how, long ago, the narrowness of the newly bipedal human female’s pelvis and the increasing size of infants’ heads precipitated a crisis for the species. Natural selection allowed for the adaptation of the human female to this environmental stress by reconfiguring her hormonal cycles, entraining them with the periodicity of the moon. The results, however, did much more than ensure our existence; they imbued women with the concept of time, and gave them control over sex—a power that males sought to reclaim. And the possibility of achieving immortality through heirs drove men to construct patriarchal cultures that went on to dominate so much of human history. From the nature of courtship to the evolution of language, Shlain’s brilliant and wide-ranging exploration stimulates new thinking about very old matters. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: A Companion to Intellectual History Richard Whatmore, Brian Young, 2015-12-21 A Companion to Intellectual History provides an in-depth survey of the practice of intellectual history as a discipline. Forty newly-commissioned chapters showcase leading global research with broad coverage of every aspect of intellectual history as it is currently practiced. Presents an in-depth survey of recent research and practice of intellectual history Written in a clear and accessible manner, designed for an international audience Surveys the various methodologies that have arisen and the main historiographical debates that concern intellectual historians Pays special attention to contemporary controversies, providing readers with the most current overview of the field Demonstrates the ways in which intellectual historians have contributed to the history of science and medicine, literary studies, art history and the history of political thought Named Outstanding Academic Title of 2016 by Choice Magazine, a publication of the American Library Association |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: Sex Before Sexuality Kim M. Phillips, Barry Reay, 2013-04-24 Sexuality in modern western culture is central to identity but the tendency to define by sexuality does not apply to the premodern past. Before the 'invention' of sexuality, erotic acts and desires were comprehended as species of sin, expressions of idealised love, courtship, and marriage, or components of intimacies between men or women, not as outworkings of an innermost self. With a focus on c. 1100–c. 1800, this book explores the shifting meanings, languages, and practices of western sex. It is the first study to combine the medieval and early modern to rethink this time of sex before sexuality, where same-sex and opposite-sex desire and eroticism bore but faint traces of what moderns came to call heterosexuality, homosexuality, lesbianism, and pornography. This volume aims to contribute to contemporary historical theory through paying attention to the particularity of premodern sexual cultures. Phillips and Reay argue that students of premodern sex will be blocked in their understanding if they use terms and concepts applicable to sexuality since the late nineteenth century, and modern commentators will never know their subject without a deeper comprehension of sex's history. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: Madness and Civilization Michel Foucault, 2013-01-30 Michel Foucault examines the archeology of madness in the West from 1500 to 1800 - from the late Middle Ages, when insanity was still considered part of everyday life and fools and lunatics walked the streets freely, to the time when such people began to be considered a threat, asylums were first built, and walls were erected between the insane and the rest of humanity. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: I, Pierre Rivi_re, Having Slaughtered My Mother, My Sister, and My Brother-- Michel Foucault, 1982-01-01 To free his father and himself from his mother's tyranny, Pierre Rivière decided to kill her. On June 3,1835, he went inside his small Normandy house with a pruning hook and cut to death his mother, his eighteen-year-old sister, and his seven-year-old brother. Then, in jail, he wrote a memoir to justify the whole gruesome tale. Michel Foucault, author of Madness and Civilization and Discipline and Punish, collected the relevant documents of the case, including medical and legal testimony, police records. and Rivière's memoir. The Rivière case, he points out, occurred at a time when many professions were contending for status and power. Medical authority was challenging law, branches of government were vying. Foucault's reconstruction of the case is a brilliant exploration of the roots of our contemporary views of madness, justice, and crime. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: A Global History of Sexual Science, 1880–1960 Veronika Fuechtner, Douglas E. Haynes, Ryan M. Jones, 2018 Sex has no history, but sexual science does. Starting in the late nineteenth century, scholars and activists all over the world suddenly began to insist that understandings of sex be based on science. As Japanese and Indian sexologists influenced their German, British and American counterparts, and vice versa, sexuality, modernity, and imaginings of exotified “Others” became intimately linked. The first anthology to provide a worldwide perspective on the birth and development of the field, A Global History of Sexual Science contends that actors outside of Europe—in Asia, Latin America, and Africa—became important interlocutors in debates on prostitution, birth control or transvestitism. Ideas circulated through intellectual exchange, travel, and internationally produced and disseminated publications. Twenty scholars tackle specific issues, including the female orgasm and the criminalization of male homosexuality, to demonstrate how concepts and ideas introduced by sexual scientists gained currency throughout the modern world. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: Foucault's History of Sexuality Volume I, The Will to Knowledge Mark G. E. Kelly, 2013-02-25 A step-by-step guide to Foucault's History of Sexuality Volume I, The Will to KnowledgeIn the first volume of his History of Sexuality, The Will to Knowledge, Foucault weaves together the most influential theoretical account of sexuality since Freud. Mark Kelly systematically unpacks the intricacies of Foucault's dense and sometimes confusing exposition, in a straightforward way, putting it in its historical and theoretical context.This is both a guide for the reader new to the text and one that offers new insights to those already familiar with Foucault's work. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: Foucault and Nietzsche Joseph Westfall, Alan Rosenberg, 2019-08-22 Foucault's intellectual indebtedness to Nietzsche is apparent in his writing, yet the precise nature, extent, and nuances of that debt are seldom explored. Foucault himself seems sometimes to claim that his approach is essentially Nietzschean, and sometimes to insist that he amounts to a radical break with Nietzsche. This volume is the first of its kind, presenting the relationship between these two thinkers on elements of contemporary culture that they shared interests in, including the nature of life in the modern world, philosophy as a way of life, and the ways in which we ought to read and write about other philosophers. The contributing authors are leading figures in Foucault and Nietzsche studies, and their contributions reflect the diversity of approaches possible in coming to terms with the Foucault-Nietzsche relationship. Specific points of comparison include Foucault and Nietzsche's differing understandings of the Death of God; art and aesthetics; power; writing and authorship; politics and society; the history of ideas; genealogy and archaeology; and the evolution of knowledge. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: Biopower Vernon W. Cisney, Nicolae Morar, 2015-12-28 Michel Foucault’s notion of “biopower” has been a highly fertile concept in recent theory, influencing thinkers worldwide across a variety of disciplines and concerns. In The History of Sexuality: An Introduction, Foucault famously employed the term to describe “a power bent on generating forces, making them grow, and ordering them, rather than one dedicated to impeding them, making them submit, or destroying them.” With this volume, Vernon W. Cisney and Nicolae Morar bring together leading contemporary scholars to explore the many theoretical possibilities that the concept of biopower has enabled while at the same time pinpointing their most important shared resonances. Situating biopower as a radical alternative to traditional conceptions of power—what Foucault called “sovereign power”—the contributors examine a host of matters centered on life, the body, and the subject as a living citizen. Altogether, they pay testament to the lasting relevance of biopower in some of our most important contemporary debates on issues ranging from health care rights to immigration laws, HIV prevention discourse, genomics medicine, and many other topics. |
the history of sexuality the will to knowledge: Intimate Matters John D'Emilio, Estelle B. Freedman, 1989 Traces changing American attitudes towards human sexuality, discusses social issues involving race, gender, class, and sexual preference, and looks at crusaders for sexual change |
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Deleted pages from your browsing history; Tips: If you’re signed in to Chrome and sync your history, then your History also shows pages you’ve visited on your other devices. If you don’t …
Manage & delete your Search history - Computer - Google Help
On your computer, go to your Search history in My Activity. Choose the Search history you want to delete. You can choose: All your Search history: Above your history, click Delete Delete all …
Access & control activity in your account
Under "History settings," click My Activity. To access your activity: Browse your activity, organized by day and time. To find specific activity, at the top, use the search bar and filters. Manage …
Delete your activity - Computer - Google Account Help
Under "History settings," click an activity or history setting you want to auto-delete. Click Auto-delete. Click the button for how long you want to keep your activity Next Confirm to save your …
Check or delete your Chrome browsing history
Websites you’ve visited are recorded in your browsing history. You can check or delete your browsing history, and find related searches in Chrome. You can also resume browsing …
Manage your Google Meet call history
Tip: History on the home screen shows only the last call you had with a contact, whether or not it was a Meet call or a legacy call. Export your call history. On your computer, go to Meet. Select …
View, delete, or turn on or off watch history
Click YouTube History. Click Manage history. Click Auto-delete. Select your preferred time range, then click Next. Click Confirm when done. Turn off or delete your watch history while signed …
View or delete your YouTube search history
Delete search history. Visit the My Activity page. Select one of the following: Delete: Click beside a search to delete it. To delete more than one search from your history at a time, click …
Find & manage Translate history - Computer - Google Help
You can save your Google Translate history to find the meanings of words or phrases you translate. Your saved translations sync across your devices. The Translate app syncs your …
Delete browsing data in Chrome - Computer - Google Help
Download history: The list of files you've downloaded using Chrome is deleted, but the actual files aren't removed from your computer. Passwords: Records of passwords you saved are deleted. …
Check or delete your Chrome browsing history
Deleted pages from your browsing history; Tips: If you’re signed in to Chrome and sync your history, then your History also shows pages you’ve visited on your other devices. If you don’t …
Manage & delete your Search history - Computer - Google Help
On your computer, go to your Search history in My Activity. Choose the Search history you want to delete. You can choose: All your Search history: Above your history, click Delete Delete all …
Access & control activity in your account
Under "History settings," click My Activity. To access your activity: Browse your activity, organized by day and time. To find specific activity, at the top, use the search bar and filters. Manage …
Delete your activity - Computer - Google Account Help
Under "History settings," click an activity or history setting you want to auto-delete. Click Auto-delete. Click the button for how long you want to keep your activity Next Confirm to save your …
Check or delete your Chrome browsing history
Websites you’ve visited are recorded in your browsing history. You can check or delete your browsing history, and find related searches in Chrome. You can also resume browsing …
Manage your Google Meet call history
Tip: History on the home screen shows only the last call you had with a contact, whether or not it was a Meet call or a legacy call. Export your call history. On your computer, go to Meet. Select …
View, delete, or turn on or off watch history
Click YouTube History. Click Manage history. Click Auto-delete. Select your preferred time range, then click Next. Click Confirm when done. Turn off or delete your watch history while signed …
View or delete your YouTube search history
Delete search history. Visit the My Activity page. Select one of the following: Delete: Click beside a search to delete it. To delete more than one search from your history at a time, click …
Find & manage Translate history - Computer - Google Help
You can save your Google Translate history to find the meanings of words or phrases you translate. Your saved translations sync across your devices. The Translate app syncs your …
Delete browsing data in Chrome - Computer - Google Help
Download history: The list of files you've downloaded using Chrome is deleted, but the actual files aren't removed from your computer. Passwords: Records of passwords you saved are deleted. …