On Wed, Jul 24, 1996 8:24:02 PM, chloe sekouri wrote:
>Someone want to narrow it down? Suggest related topics? Etc etc?
>What about a genreal discusssion of the absence of "race" (whatever that
is)
>in the writings of Foucault and other French (read: former colonial power)
>theorists? Someone? Anyone?
Hmmmm... this is an odd card to play..... I'm not sure the issue of race
emerges in Hist of Sex at all, though it would not be difficult to explain
this omission by considering race as an issue aside from Foucault's focus,
which was the emergence of sexuality in the European context (at least in
hist sex I).
However, it would be interesting see how he might have dealt with the
question. Clearly the eugenics thesis (of potential degeneracy to more
primitive types, as described by Lombroso and others) and the darwinian
thesis ( of the eminent savage within) bear some relation to eachother.
Most importantly, they established the groundwork for the Freudian thesis,
which sees a primordial (primitive) sexual drive sublimated to a civilizing
psyche. In either case, the presence of the savage at the periphery is of
key importance. The repressive hypothesis embraces all these moments.
Perhaps it is possible to say that European colonialism is the repressive
hypothesis projected onto a global field. Does this sketch offer a point
of departure for futher questions?
sb
>Someone want to narrow it down? Suggest related topics? Etc etc?
>What about a genreal discusssion of the absence of "race" (whatever that
is)
>in the writings of Foucault and other French (read: former colonial power)
>theorists? Someone? Anyone?
Hmmmm... this is an odd card to play..... I'm not sure the issue of race
emerges in Hist of Sex at all, though it would not be difficult to explain
this omission by considering race as an issue aside from Foucault's focus,
which was the emergence of sexuality in the European context (at least in
hist sex I).
However, it would be interesting see how he might have dealt with the
question. Clearly the eugenics thesis (of potential degeneracy to more
primitive types, as described by Lombroso and others) and the darwinian
thesis ( of the eminent savage within) bear some relation to eachother.
Most importantly, they established the groundwork for the Freudian thesis,
which sees a primordial (primitive) sexual drive sublimated to a civilizing
psyche. In either case, the presence of the savage at the periphery is of
key importance. The repressive hypothesis embraces all these moments.
Perhaps it is possible to say that European colonialism is the repressive
hypothesis projected onto a global field. Does this sketch offer a point
of departure for futher questions?
sb