book data
2,197 ratings,
4.01
average rating, 146 reviews
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published
April 14th 1990
(first published 1976)
by Vintage
binding
Paperback, 176 pages
isbn
0679724699
(isbn13: 9780679724698)
description
The author turns his attention to sex and the reasons why we are driven constantly to analyze and discuss it. An iconoclastic explanation of modern se...more
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editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
Read in October, 2006
I suppose it's high time I write a review of this book, as I finished it several days ago. At the time, though, it was quite late, and I have much to say -- or at least, I thought I did -- so I wanted to wait until I had more time. And here we are. To summarize, I think Foucault's argument is quite interesting, and the ideas he proffers are mind-boggling... and yet, they also have an extremely large blind-spot: the individual's sexuality or, to put it another way, sexuality as the individual exp...more
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A much more difficult Foucault - and not nearly as interesting as his history of madness. He seems to take a long time to get started and does seem to repeat himself an awful lot.
All the same, the ideas around the difference between Western and Eastern notions of sexuality are well with thinking about. Essentially Eastern sexuality is an erotic thing - something understood through experience. Western sexuality is 'scientific' in the sense that it only makes sense once we can tal...more
All the same, the ideas around the difference between Western and Eastern notions of sexuality are well with thinking about. Essentially Eastern sexuality is an erotic thing - something understood through experience. Western sexuality is 'scientific' in the sense that it only makes sense once we can tal...more
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um. what can i say about this book that hasnt already been said? i read it my second year of college and it blew my mind, and in a good way, unlike kant, who made me cry actual tears in overwhelming frustration. foucaults ability to trace the burgeoning relationship between science and sexuality, the changes in the ways of perceiving a womans body, the notion of the creation of (a) sexuality, and, of course, the dynamics of power and discourse, are nothing short of brilliant in this classic stud...more
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Reading this for my Materialist Workshop/Reading Group. We've delved into Birth of the Clinic, a few of his Lectures, and the three volumes of History of Sexuality. Foucault said that History of Sexuality was supposed to be his magnum opus. It took him nearly a decade to complete, and it is comprised mainly of 'Big Ideas,' in the sense that Foucault often forgets to flesh out the details of his work. He paints in broad brush strokes, and I attribute this lack of detail to his burgeoning status ...more
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There's some interesting juxtapositions here, but if you've read a reasonable amount of Freud, had some early exposure to Thomas Kuhn, and plowed through a lot of Max Weber (as Foucault has, compare "Discipline & Punish" to the 2 Volume "Economy & Society" and the more difficult "Methodology of the Social Sciences"), there's nothing especially new here. The punch line is interesting, and I give Foucault credit for his striking formulation of it, but I'm not blown a...more
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Read in May, 2009
In the words of my professor, "we're living in a post-Foucauldian world, so this will seem really self-evident, but that doesn't mean its right." Coming from that angle, I've been reading from a very critical position. I like Foucault's thesis and his examination seems pretty exhaustive, at least historically. I'm really caught on the discussion of the bourgeoisie and proletariat 'sexual bodies.' Foucault's statement that the technology of sexuality and proliferation of sexual power di...more
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Read in January, 2007
How do our ideas of gender and sex relate to the political economy and history of Europe... well, voila!
Strange to see how powerful this book is in its arguments and to still have sociobiologist come out to explain how modern sexuality actually can be explained by genetic coding of our behavior... Maybe there is somewhere in between? The subject internalizes social power, but is there some sort of rhyme or reason to social power besides material accumulation or accumulation of power ...more
Strange to see how powerful this book is in its arguments and to still have sociobiologist come out to explain how modern sexuality actually can be explained by genetic coding of our behavior... Maybe there is somewhere in between? The subject internalizes social power, but is there some sort of rhyme or reason to social power besides material accumulation or accumulation of power ...more
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Read in May, 2009
What can one possibly hope to say, especially in a capsule review? Much more accessible than I was anticipating, and the way it flipped over and then systematically deconstructed a general assumption of mine (and most people, I'd say)--namely, that the steadily increasing discourse regarding sex, sexuality and the human body over the last several centuries has NOT led to a more open and liberated understanding of such topics, but has actually led to more restriction and, inevitably, guilt.
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The more I get angry at this book, the more I become intrigued.
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Oh. My. Gods. Since when is an unnecisarily convoluted theory of power the mark of somebody we should praise for ever and ever amen? Ye gods. No citations, no specifics and a huge reliance on circular logic that is the antithesis of Ockham's Razor. Yuck! But say so in a Queer Theory class and you will meet with silence and dirty looks, because, hey, all talk of power to the people is welcome, even if it is so complicated that the people can't understand it.
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Read in January, 2009
Can we really believe Foucault's account of the development of sexuality in Western culture? Was there really a time when sex was a non-tabooed game? Can we really believe his essentializations of pre-modern and "Eastern" societies with their "Ars erotica." A bit of a tough sell... The best thing about the book may simply be getting us to take a hard look at the needless prohibitions on sex in our culture.
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What is there to say in a review on goodreads.com about a book that has changed the way you think about nearly everything without in some way demeaning how profound you think the book really is? In the last few months, I've written extensively on Foucault. Maybe I'll post some of my writing. Are you willing to read twenty pages of my research?
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Read in October, 2008
holy shit! this book is amazing/riveting as helllll. 400 years of history of institutions and their treatments of sexuality in the west, including the church, schools, psychologists, physicians, the spaces where studied, how sex became an object of study, and most importantly WHY we proclaim so LOUDLY that we're oppressed! watch out, how you're talking about sex might just be another form of subjugation...
The most fascinating part is Foucault places the new paradigm of sexuality (...more
The most fascinating part is Foucault places the new paradigm of sexuality (...more
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the failure of semiotics and semiology is not complete yet. the use of words to replace true symbols points to the inward navel gazing of READERS, who READ into things, not study the biostructure (or rather the biogenetic structures) of form, movement, semiologists seem to be unaware of the myths that suffuse the very words they employ to dissect other more sophisticated structures. indeed cosmopolitan, the craft is wedded to tools born in the lit criticism freud used and called psychoanalysis. ...more
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Foucault is incredibly verbose, so this was not a pleasant read. However, his perspective on the irony of the fact that most believe that sexuality has been "repressed" is fascinating. His theory is unique and interesting, but his writing is hard to get through. I'd sparknote it.
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Read in November, 2008
Academia loves Foucault, apparently. I've been away too long, and we didn't do much theory in my undergraduate program. Still, for self-important critical theory, it makes sense! And I didn't want to kill myself afterwards, as is so often the case with this kind of thing.
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Read in March, 2008
Eh. To be honest, after reading the first 20 pages of this book I started skipping around a bit. The thing I like about Foucault is his direction. This was not like that. It was more like Susan Santog's Regarding the Pain of Others.
This causes a problem because, while the aforementioned Santog lit, was extremely redundant and unnecessarily superfluous (<--like the irony there?), it was more of an essay than a "book." In The History of Sexuality I fawned over the first 20 ...more
This causes a problem because, while the aforementioned Santog lit, was extremely redundant and unnecessarily superfluous (<--like the irony there?), it was more of an essay than a "book." In The History of Sexuality I fawned over the first 20 ...more
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Read in January, 2007
I read this when I was temping at a place called the Corporate Executive Board. Saucy! History of Sexuality was the first biopolitics-type reading I ever did outside of school, and is pretty much responsible for my understanding of what the hell Agamben was talking about when I started trying to read him. Anyway, this is a (it seemed to me, perhaps an expert would feel differently) not especially careful study of the way sexuality has manifested itself in more recent times and the way it's becom...more
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this was amazing. it starts off in a way that you feel like he might be wrong, and then it all becomes clear and you no longer see society and sexuality in the same way. i won't say more. it's amazing. foucault, who went mad himself, is maddening.
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quotes from this book
"Resistances do not derive from a few heterogeneous principles; but neither are they a lure or a promise that is of necessity betrayed. They are the odd term in relations of power; they are inscribed in the latter as an irreducible opposite."
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