Thomas (and Chetan),
One could also make the argument (which Halperin does) that Foucault's
overall emphasis on the discursive formation of sexuality already points and
admits to the limits of his stated analysis, while also pointing towards the
usefulness of his methodology in looking at discursive sexual practices in
other time time periods, and outside the West.
While this sort of thing could easily become a kind of navel-gazing
claim--"But are we ever discursive enough?"--and sometimes it *does, *a work
that takes this sort of methodology up fairly well is William Naphy's *Born
to be Gay.* The title here is very misleading, so please don't read too far
into it. It's a nice, well-researched survey of sexual practices on a more
global scale--going back, I think to Sumeria. It's better as an introductory
work which points towards *other* texts, but it's still quite informative
and highly readable.
Apologies for my rather clipped earlier response. It's definitely that time
of year. "Hap, Happiest Season of All" my foot. Haha.
Best,
Kaelin Alexander
Graduate Student
Cornell University
Department of English
On Sat, Dec 13, 2008 at 6:12 PM, Thomas Lord <lord@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Sat, 2008-12-13 at 17:36 -0500, Kaelin Alexander wrote:
> > Chetan,
> >
> > Short answer: No.
> >
> > Long answer: Read Halperin's *Saint Foucault.*
>
>
> Perhaps one of the real scholars can fill in my
> memory on something I half remember: there's a
> piece by Foucault or a transcript of a conversation
> where he talks about the application of his ideas
> outside the west. I don't recall whether he talked
> about History of Sexuality specifically or not but
> he did make sort of overarching (his whole program)
> statements to the effect he was analyzing specific
> cases and yes those cases were all in what one
> could informally call "the West" and that while
> his mode of analysis had applicability elsewhere
> his historical narrative did not. Does that
> ring any bells?
>
> -t
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Foucault-L mailing list
>
One could also make the argument (which Halperin does) that Foucault's
overall emphasis on the discursive formation of sexuality already points and
admits to the limits of his stated analysis, while also pointing towards the
usefulness of his methodology in looking at discursive sexual practices in
other time time periods, and outside the West.
While this sort of thing could easily become a kind of navel-gazing
claim--"But are we ever discursive enough?"--and sometimes it *does, *a work
that takes this sort of methodology up fairly well is William Naphy's *Born
to be Gay.* The title here is very misleading, so please don't read too far
into it. It's a nice, well-researched survey of sexual practices on a more
global scale--going back, I think to Sumeria. It's better as an introductory
work which points towards *other* texts, but it's still quite informative
and highly readable.
Apologies for my rather clipped earlier response. It's definitely that time
of year. "Hap, Happiest Season of All" my foot. Haha.
Best,
Kaelin Alexander
Graduate Student
Cornell University
Department of English
On Sat, Dec 13, 2008 at 6:12 PM, Thomas Lord <lord@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Sat, 2008-12-13 at 17:36 -0500, Kaelin Alexander wrote:
> > Chetan,
> >
> > Short answer: No.
> >
> > Long answer: Read Halperin's *Saint Foucault.*
>
>
> Perhaps one of the real scholars can fill in my
> memory on something I half remember: there's a
> piece by Foucault or a transcript of a conversation
> where he talks about the application of his ideas
> outside the west. I don't recall whether he talked
> about History of Sexuality specifically or not but
> he did make sort of overarching (his whole program)
> statements to the effect he was analyzing specific
> cases and yes those cases were all in what one
> could informally call "the West" and that while
> his mode of analysis had applicability elsewhere
> his historical narrative did not. Does that
> ring any bells?
>
> -t
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Foucault-L mailing list
>