At
the beginning of his "History of Sexuality" Michel Foucault criticizes
the long held convention according to which the 19th century expelled sexuality
from public discourse. Foucault calls this notion "the repressive
hypothesis" since it holds that sexuality was repressed and therefore in
need of liberation. Instead of the repressive hypothesis Foucault suggests the proliferation
of the discourse on sexuality. He argues that technologies of power that
were employed on 19th century sexuality by doctors, psychiatrists and educators
were not technologies of repression but rather of excessive speech. Sex was
indeed viewed as something private and internal but was still constantly
discussed and addressed. Foucault says that the discourse on sexuality, even when
dealing with restrictions and prohibitions, in fact articulated sexuality,
classified it as normal and abnormal and positioned in as a predominant focus
of the individual's relationship to himself.
Through
his theory on the discourse on sexuality Foucault tries to understand sexuality
and the history of sexuality as the product of discourse within a certain
context. This means that our innermost drives and desires are shaped by social
structures. Sexuality for Foucault is not "natural" but rather
constructed by discourse. Foucault argues that in history sexuality was viewed
and experienced in manners very different from our own.
Another
important point in the introduction to
"The History of Sexuality" is the "birth of homosexuality"
in the 19th century. Foucault holds that the classifying discourse on sexuality
identified and in fact formed sexual identities. Sexuality moved from being a
matter of law and morals and into a matter of identity. Those who tried to expel
homosexuality just gave it a name and allowed for it, nowadays, to become
excepted.
"The
History of Sexuality" expresses some of Foucault's
post-structuralist tendencies in viewing the human subject and all of its features
not as fixed, essential and determinate structures but rather as historical
products subjected to discourse and the power
and knowledge it incorporates. Another important methodological aspect of
"The History of Sexuality" is it genealogy of discourse, retracing
its development in history, which is characteristic of Foucault's work
(inspired by Nietzsche).
More about Foucault:
Foucault - "Of Other Spaces" - summary
Michel Foucault: Panopticism - Summary
Foucault's Panopticism explained
Michel Foucault and Marxism
Truth and Power / Foucault
Michel Foucault - The Discourse on Language
Michel Foucault: Panopticism - Summary
Foucault's Panopticism explained
Michel Foucault and Marxism
Truth and Power / Foucault
Michel Foucault - The Discourse on Language