Michel Foucault’s first volume of his project of a “history of sexuality” is a modern classic. In it, Foucault systematizes and further develops the concept of power he has been working on since the beginning of the 1970s. Using historical material to sharpen the concept, Foucault arrives at three ambitious, far-reaching and hugely influential theses: First, sexuality is not a natural yet repressed phenomena; it rather is a modern invention of the 19th century, systematically nurtured by the dominant powers. Thus struggles against the repression of sexuality are far less liberating than they take themselves to be. On the contrary, they are actually complicit with the power they want to fight against. Second, this power is no longer the sovereign power political philosophy usually speaks of, and even is not only the disciplinary power Foucault described in Discipline and Punish (1975). Instead, it must be conceptualized as “bio-power”: the power to foster life and to let die. Third, this bio-power is no less deadly than other forms of power; the legitimation of ever larger massacres will now be found in a new form of state racism.
The seminar will examine these three theses. It does so by carefully reading and discussing Foucault’s book as a whole. In the second half, we will explore how Foucault’s diagnosis was criticized, defended and developed.
Preparatory Readinge
Foucault, Michel (2005 [1976]): Der Wille zum Wissen. Sexualität und Wahrheit 1. Übersetzt von Ulrich Raulff und Walter Seitter. Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp.
Sarasin, Philipp (2008): Michel Foucault zur Einführung. 3. Aufl. Hamburg: Junius.
Folkers, Andreas und Thomas Lemke (Hrsg.) (2014): Biopolitik. Ein Reader. Berlin: Suhrkamp.