Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The publication of Michel Foucault's first volume of the The History of Sexuality thoroughly transformed theoretical thinking around sexuality. A range of Foucault's longstanding concerns around power, knowledge, discourse, truth, and subjectivity culminate in this text about the genealogy of sexuality in Christian western societies. With this book, Foucault attempted to write the history of sexuality “from the viewpoint of the history of discourses.” In Foucault's work, the concept of discourse is intrinsically interwoven with what he perceived to be distinctively modern forms of power. The insistence that modern power is productive rather than simply repressive is one of the central assets of his novel theory of power. Premodern forms of power were based on the idea of power-sovereignty or power-law. They were derived from monarchical techniques of government and drew upon the binary ruler/ruled. From within this paradigm, power is conceived as negative . It works through measures such as censorship, prohibition, prevention, exclusion, or spectacular forms of punishment. In contradistinction, power as a modality of discourse is positive in that it is productive of social relationships, forms of knowledge, and modes of subjectivity. Moreover, it is more difficult to pin it down clearly or to identify its origin in any particular agent, institution, or social space. ... log in or subscribe to read full text