Study guide for Foucault, History of Sexuality Part I, pp. 17-50.
CAS360. Asian Genders, University of Toronto. © Dylan Clark, All Rights Reserved.
1.) Consider the date of publication: 1976 (in French). Many parts of the West are still reveling in
the spirit of the “1960s.” In words and deeds are the ideas of “free love” and liberation. Gays
are coming out into the open as never before, pre-marital sex is ever more common, birth
control and abortion have given women more control over their own sexuality and more room
to experiment. Moreover, it was quite simple to see these changes as momentous and radical:
these were stunning transformations from even a decade prior, if we can speak of such as thing
as “sexuality in the West in the 1950s.”i With this in mind ponder what Foucault means by “the
repressive hypothesis.”
2.) (FYI) Keep in mind that Foucault was a homosexual man, who grew up in a deeply homophobic
French society. He was closeted and shamed. He kept his “perversions” secret. He grew up
persecuted by a dominant society that imposed power through symbolic channels: through
norms, through rules, through instruction, through repression. See, for example on p. 38, where
he describes a new kind of centeredness for heterosexual monogamy, and how (on pp. 38-40)
he describes the fate of those who deviated from this “natural” norm.
3.) (FYI) Timeline: Foucault repeatedly speaks of a change that is happening during the 18th century,
a.k.a. the 1700s, particularly by the later part of that century. He’ll sometimes toggle back to
earlier times to make a contrast, then back again. (e.g. p. 37). You don’t need to memorize
dates/names and trivia from Foucault, but you’ll understand him more fluently if you keep this
simple timeline in your mind. Thus, on p. 38 he’s outlining the older prohibitions on sex. Then
he shifts: “The discursive explosion of the 18th and 19th centuries…” So, dates are one way to
keep track of Foucault’s time-changes. Another simple rule: the prior time was saturated with
Christianity, the Catholic Church, and aristocracy. As he takes us into a more modern epoch,
some of the “techniques” of Church remain, even as a more bureaucratic, scientific regime of
power is unfolding…
4.) a.) One of the key features in this reading is Foucault’s discussions of secrecy and repression, in
relation to power. You’ll find it throughout. Here’s a quote from a page you didn’t read, but it’s
quite helpful, I think:
What is peculiar to modern societies, in fact, is not threat they consigned sex to a
shadow existence, but that they dedicated themselves to speaking of it ad infinitum,
while exploiting it as the secret (HoS, v. I, p. 35)
Foucault is going to try to get you to see this in many other places, so please try to see
what he’s up to with secrecy.
b) Relatedly, consider the power of keeping truths hidden, in finding truths, in forcing truth out
into the light. Be sure to ponder this throughout. E.g. page 42.
5.) [Note:] Foucault prefers to use the word discourse. For Foucault, discourses are not quite
ideologies and are not really driven in a top-down manner. They’re not about controlling or
deceiving, per se; and they’re not really designed to perpetrate inequalities (class, for example),
because they’re not really designed at all. They circulate in us and through us all. It’s important
that, as you read Foucault, you let go of the idea that “society is telling us X or Y,” or that “men
use patriarchal ideology in order to X or Y.” Foucault is highly critical of homophobia, class
inequality, and so forth, but his model of discourse is not Marxist—discourses are relational and
dynamic, subject to change and unpredictable outcomes.
6.) In “The Repressive Hypothesis,” F. is examining sexual discourse (texts, rules, actions,
prohibitions, books, experts, deviants, etc.) for what might be called the Victorian era. One
thinks especially of upper middle class society in northern Europe, of a burgeoning field of
science, of states ever more concerned to control ‘the population.’ Our stereotypes of this era,
from literature, history, and other sources, often depict a quite prudish society. Yet, one sees a
“discursive explosion” about sex (pp. 17, 32-4). We pick up this theme in “the Perverse
Implantation.” What sorts of perversions were part of this discursive explosion?
7.) As you read this section, try to see how Foucault is tracing the transformation of Catholic
confession. (If interested see especially pp. 58-70, which are not required reading). He wants to
suggest that this very ancient device was appropriated and transformed in new sexual
discourses. How so?
8.) In “The Perverse Implantation” it is important that you grasp the production of norms and the
production of perversions. By the end of the chapter you should be able to discuss each of
these concepts.
9.)
On p. 43 Foucault speaks of the invention of homosexuality: “the homosexual was now a
species.” Explain the birth of the homosexual with regard to the emerging modern discourses of
sexuality.
10.) Discuss Foucault’s insights about pleasure. E.g. pp. 43-4.
11.) Consider the rise of modern medicine and modern psychiatry, as positions of knowledge backed
by power, power-knowledge, which—with authority and expertise and institutions—came to
delegitimize other forms of medical practice and knowledge.
12.) Foucault is arguing that there was, in the 18th century, the emergence of the population, as an
object of power-knowledge: “it” was “discovered” in demographics, surveys, maps, and
bureaucratic practices. “It” took form, become knowable, emerged as an object of needs,
deficits, and failures. “It” seemed to require improvements, restorations, ameliorations,
instruction. Explain then, why sexuality was a key set of sites onto which concerns about the
population were activated, known, addressed. Explain.
13.) What do “perversions” (36-49) such as “homosexuality” and “racial degeneracy” (p. 54, not
assigned—we’ll see it in Stoler) have to do with the population?
14.) NOTE: in the next section, “Sciencia Sexualis,” which is not assigned, Foucault is giving great
attention to the “scientific” procedures use to “discover” (i.e. produce) “truths” in subjects, in
bodies.
i
Let’s be mindful of the problems with saying things like “the 1960s,” or “Paris” or “free love,” or “women.” We’re
speaking in almost absurd generalities. It should go without saying that millions of people in these places and
times were not subscribers to these beliefs or practices. But even bystanders and opponents would have been
acutely aware of the powerful new climate of sexuality.