We're reading parts of History of Sexuality volume 1 again for my
theory class and I was curious about a reading Foucault
does in the part "The Deployment of Sexuality".
In the beginning of this section of the book, he gives a brief
description of Diderot's fable "Les Bijoux Indiscrets". A student gave a
brilliant presentation on it, yet I was confused when he used Foucault's
discussion of Diderot as an example to describe "scientia sexualis" as
talked about in the book. It's been a while but did Foucault transcribe
this tale in the context of 19th century medical descriptions of
"scientia sexualis" or did he transcribe this tale as part of a general
thesis about confession in the west, 18th century onwards? I ask because
I remember that tale being brought up only in the beginning of The
Deployment of Sexuality and not in the discussion "Scientia Sexualis",
an observation that I think would make more sense considering Diderot
wrote in the 18th century. Overall, considering how brief a mention it got
in the book, I would think Foucault was using this tale only as an example
of an 18th century unscientific version of a practices that would get
medicalized in the 19th century, considering where he placed the mention of
the tale and the discussion he made surrounding it in that chapter, which
didn't seem to focus on scientia sexualis (which was in the previous part)
but on general confession. --
Chetan Vemuri
West Des Moines, IA
aryavartacnsrn@xxxxxxxxx
(515)-418-2771
"You say you want a Revolution! Well you know, we all want to change the
world"
theory class and I was curious about a reading Foucault
does in the part "The Deployment of Sexuality".
In the beginning of this section of the book, he gives a brief
description of Diderot's fable "Les Bijoux Indiscrets". A student gave a
brilliant presentation on it, yet I was confused when he used Foucault's
discussion of Diderot as an example to describe "scientia sexualis" as
talked about in the book. It's been a while but did Foucault transcribe
this tale in the context of 19th century medical descriptions of
"scientia sexualis" or did he transcribe this tale as part of a general
thesis about confession in the west, 18th century onwards? I ask because
I remember that tale being brought up only in the beginning of The
Deployment of Sexuality and not in the discussion "Scientia Sexualis",
an observation that I think would make more sense considering Diderot
wrote in the 18th century. Overall, considering how brief a mention it got
in the book, I would think Foucault was using this tale only as an example
of an 18th century unscientific version of a practices that would get
medicalized in the 19th century, considering where he placed the mention of
the tale and the discussion he made surrounding it in that chapter, which
didn't seem to focus on scientia sexualis (which was in the previous part)
but on general confession. --
Chetan Vemuri
West Des Moines, IA
aryavartacnsrn@xxxxxxxxx
(515)-418-2771
"You say you want a Revolution! Well you know, we all want to change the
world"