Description
Book SynopsisMichel 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 These lectures offer crucial insight into the development of Foucault’s thought yet have remained unpublished until recently.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.
Trade ReviewWhat comes to my mind when traversing these extraordinary lectures is a variant of the famous motto: 'same is another.' Foucault claimed that he was writing texts to depart from himself. And he succeeded. But in doing so he delved deeper and deeper into his own truth. And into ours. -- Étienne Balibar, author of
Violence and Civility: On the Limits of Political PhilosophyThis volume of Foucault’s early lectures on sexuality offers readers a chance to follow the ebbs and flows of theoretical thought as ideas take shape under very specific historical conditions. With a brilliant introduction by Bernard Harcourt guiding the way, the lectures gathered here provide deep insight into the braided structures of power, knowledge and desire that continue to regulate bodies. At the same time, this deep archive provides opportunities for linking to other moments of rebellion, opposition and, even, abolition. -- Jack Halberstam, author of
Wild Things: The Disorder of Desire and
Trans*: A Quick and Quirky Guide to Gender VariationFinally published in English, these 1964 and 1969 early lectures of Foucault, given at a time when homosexuality was still considered a clinical pathology and a crime and when the notion of gender was not yet a leverage of political emancipation for feminist and trans movements, allow us to grasp the archeology of contemporary queer and trans critical languages. We discover a young Foucault thinking sexuality anew, using Sade, Bataille, Restif de la Bretonne, or Fourier, and fighting with Freud, Marx, Melanie Klein, Marcuse, or Wilhelm Reich in order to pierce an academic, political, and discursive field dominated by epistemic violence against sexual minorities. A necessary, controversial, and fascinating reading to understand not only Foucault’s critical project but also the way in which different discourses on desire, pleasure, and sexuality shape our present. -- Paul B. Preciado, author of
Countersexual ManifestoThese lectures offer a really important insight into Foucault’s work in the 1960s on the question of sexuality—a topic on which his more famous works come from the 1970s and 1980s. This volume shows how he proposed a study of scientific knowledge about sexuality from biology to psychology, with some explicit engagement with figures who are only discussed obliquely elsewhere. Graham Burchell is the most important translator of Foucault’s work into English, and Anglophone readers remain much in his debt. -- Stuart Elden, author of
The Early FoucaultThis volume will be of interest to all scholars working on sexuality across many disciplines, particularly those whose study is informed by Foucauldian analyses of power, knowledge, and desire. * Modern Language Review *
Will be invaluable to readers interested in any aspect of Foucault's intellectual development. Highly recommended. * Choice *
Table of ContentsSeries Foreword, by Bernard E. Harcourt
Foreword to the French Edition, by François Ewald
Rules for Editing the Texts, by Claude-Olivier Doron
Translator’s Note, by Graham Burchell
Abbreviations
Part I. Sexuality: Lectures at the University of Clermont-Ferrand (1964)Lecture 1. Introduction
Lecture 2. The Scientific Knowledge of Sexuality
Lecture 3. Sexual Behavior
Lecture 4. The Perversions
Lecture 5. Infantile Sexuality
Part II. The Discourse of Sexuality: Lectures at the University of Vincennes (1969)Lecture 1. The Discourse of Sexuality
Lecture 2. The Transformations of the Eighteenth Century
Appendix to Lecture 2
Lecture 3. The Discourse of Sexuality (3)
Appendix to Lecture 3
Lecture 4. Legal Forms of Marriage Up to the Civil Code
Lecture 5. Epistemologization of Sexuality
Lecture 6. The Biology of Sexuality
Lecture 7. Sexual Utopia
Appendix to Lecture 7
Appendix. Extract from Green Notebook no. 8, September 1969
Course Context, by Claude-Olivier Doron Sexuality: Course at the University of Clermont-Ferrand (1964)
The Discourse of Sexuality: Course at the University of Vincennes (1969)
Detailed Contents
Index of Notions
Index of Names
