Sexuality

What comes to my mind when traversing these extraordinary lectures is a variant of the famous motto: 'same is another.' Foucault claimed that he was writing texts to depart from himself. And he succeeded. But in doing so he delved deeper and deeper into his own truth. And into ours. -- tienne Balibar, author of <i>Violence and Civility: On the Limits of Political Philosophy</i> This volume of Foucaults early lectures on sexuality offers readers a chance to follow the ebbs and flows of theoretical thought as ideas take shape under very specific historical conditions. With a brilliant introduction by Bernard Harcourt guiding the way, the lectures gathered here provide deep insight into the braided structures of power, knowledge and desire that continue to regulate bodies. At the same time, this deep archive provides opportunities for linking to other moments of rebellion, opposition and, even, abolition. -- Jack Halberstam, author of <i>Wild Things: The Disorder of Desire</i> and <i>Trans*: A Quick and Quirky Guide to Gender Variation</i> Finally published in English, these 1964 and 1969 early lectures of Foucault, given at a time when homosexuality was still considered a clinical pathology and a crime and when the notion of gender was not yet a leverage of political emancipation for feminist and trans movements, allow us to grasp the archeology of contemporary queer and trans critical languages. We discover a young Foucault thinking sexuality anew, using Sade, Bataille, Restif de la Bretonne, or Fourier, and fighting with Freud, Marx, Melanie Klein, Marcuse, or Wilhelm Reich in order to pierce an academic, political, and discursive field dominated by epistemic violence against sexual minorities. A necessary, controversial, and fascinating reading to understand not only Foucaults critical project but also the way in which different discourses on desire, pleasure, and sexuality shape our present. -- Paul B. Preciado, author of <i>Countersexual Manifesto</i> These lectures offer a really important insight into Foucaults work in the 1960s on the question of sexualitya topic on which his more famous works come from the 1970s and 1980s. This volume shows how he proposed a study of scientific knowledge about sexuality from biology to psychology, with some explicit engagement with figures who are only discussed obliquely elsewhere. Graham Burchell is the most important translator of Foucaults work into English, and Anglophone readers remain much in his debt. -- Stuart Elden, author of <i>The Early Foucault</i> This volume will be of interest to all scholars working on sexuality across many disciplines, particularly those whose study is informed by Foucauldian analyses of power, knowledge, and desire. * Modern Language Review * Will be invaluable to readers interested in any aspect of Foucault's intellectual development. Highly recommended. * Choice *

Michel Foucault (1926-1984), a French philosopher, historian, and social theorist, was one of the most important figures in twentieth-century thought. Claude-Olivier Doron is a professor of history and philosophy of science at the University of Paris and an editor of the works of Foucault. Franois Ewald is a political philosopher and historian, and oversaw, with Alessandro Fontana, the publication of Foucault's lectures at the Collge de France. Bernard E. Harcourt is a chaired professor at Columbia University and the cole des hautes tudes en sciences sociales in Paris and has edited a range of works by Foucault in French and English. Graham Burchell is coeditor of The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality (1991) and has translated a range of works by Foucault, including his lectures at the Collge de France.

Series Foreword, by Bernard E. Harcourt Foreword to the French Edition, by Franois Ewald Rules for Editing the Texts, by Claude-Olivier Doron Translators Note, by Graham Burchell Abbreviations Part I. Sexuality: Lectures at the University of Clermont-Ferrand (1964) Lecture 1. Introduction Lecture 2. The Scientific Knowledge of Sexuality Lecture 3. Sexual Behavior Lecture 4. The Perversions Lecture 5. Infantile Sexuality Part II. The Discourse of Sexuality: Lectures at the University of Vincennes (1969) Lecture 1. The Discourse of Sexuality Lecture 2. The Transformations of the Eighteenth Century Appendix to Lecture 2 Lecture 3. The Discourse of Sexuality (3) Appendix to Lecture 3 Lecture 4. Legal Forms of Marriage Up to the Civil Code Lecture 5. Epistemologization of Sexuality Lecture 6. The Biology of Sexuality Lecture 7. Sexual Utopia Appendix to Lecture 7 Appendix. Extract from Green Notebook no. 8, September 1969 Course Context, by Claude-Olivier Doron Sexuality: Course at the University of Clermont-Ferrand (1964) The Discourse of Sexuality: Course at the University of Vincennes (1969) Detailed Contents Index of Notions Index of Names