Foucault, The History of Sexuality--some discussion questions
1) In a nutshell, what is Foucault's objection to the "repressive hypothesis"? Why is it incorrect to think of the 19th century as an era of repressed sexuality?2) Who are the "other" Victorians?
3) Why, according to Foucault, is the represive hypothesis so popular? (hint: see pg 6)
4) Why is Foucault so interested in "discourses"? What does he mean by this term? What role do they play in his historical analysis?
5) Foucault frequently refers to the "explosion of discourses" in the 18th and 19th centuries about sex. What are some of these new discourses of sex?
6) If you had to speculate as to the causes of the explosion of discourses of sexuality at this historical juncture, how would you explain it?
As always, feel free to raise your own issues and questions and comments from the early chapters of the book in this thread.
posted by David Watkins @ 8:26 PM
1 Comments:
The discources generated in the historical junctiure are a cause of new science and a will to use them to specify and discriminate against groups as well as exemplify others. The main arguement is that science created the discourses through the study and breakdown of groups into smaller subdivisions. Although this is a factor, the peoples in power had the ability to control the outcome of acceptability and consequently molded some of the boundaries to include and exclude those the elite oppose.
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