Foucault's History of Sexuality and the Discipline of Classics

What is it about?

This article reviews Foucault's arguments about the development of sexuality as a product of a new kind of medical and scientific discourse about sex in the 19th century, as explained in his History of Sexuality, vol. 1. I then go on to review the reception (or lack of reception) of these ideas in Classical scholarship, that the response of the discipline of Classics to Foucault's vols. 2 and 3. In particular I argue that most critiques of Foucault's History have not taken into account the claim that sexuality as it is understood in the modern world is the product of a particular form of discourse, and that this discourse did not exist (at least in the form Foucault describes) in ancient Greece and Rome.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

Foucault's vol. 1 is complex, densely argued, and difficult. My article will help interested readers break down some of Foucault's assumptions, and decide for themselves whether or not his description of this development makes sense.