La sessualità: Corso all'Università di Clermont-Ferrand (1964) e Il discorso della sessualità, corso all'Università di Vincennes

by Michel Foucault, Deborah Borca (Translator)

Michel Foucault's The History of Sexuality--the first volume of which was published in 1976--exerts a vast influence across the humanities and social sciences. However, Foucault's interest in the history of sexuality began as early as the 1960s, when he taught two courses on the subject. These lectures offer crucial insight into the development of Foucault's thought yet have remained unpublished until recently.

This book presents Foucault's lectures on sexuality for the first time in English. In the first series, held at the University of Clermont-Ferrand in 1964, Foucault asks how sexuality comes to be constituted as a scientific body of knowledge within Western culture and why it derived from the analysis of "perversions"--morbidity, homosexuality, fetishism. The subsequent course, held at the experimental university at Vincennes in 1969, shows how Foucault's theories were reoriented by the events of May 1968; he refocuses on the regulatory nature of the discourse of sexuality and how it serves economic, social, and political ends. Examining creators of political and literary utopias in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, from Sade to Fourier to Marcuse, who attempted to integrate "natural" sexualities, including transgressive forms, into social and economic life, Foucault elaborates a double critique of the naturalization and the liberation of sexuality. Together, the lectures span a range of interests, from abnormality to heterotopias to ideology, and they offer an unprecedented glimpse into the evolution of Foucault's transformative thinking on sexuality.

542 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 21, 2023

About the author

Paul-Michel Foucault was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault's theories primarily address the relationships between power and knowledge, and how they are used as a form of social control through societal institutions. Though often cited as a structuralist and postmodernist, Foucault rejected these labels. His thought has influenced academics, especially those working in communication studies, anthropology, psychology, sociology, criminology, cultural studies, literary theory, feminism, Marxism and critical theory.
Born in Poitiers, France, into an upper-middle-class family, Foucault was educated at the Lycée Henri-IV, at the École Normale Supérieure, where he developed an interest in philosophy and came under the influence of his tutors Jean Hyppolite and Louis Althusser, and at the University of Paris (Sorbonne), where he earned degrees in philosophy and psychology. After several years as a cultural diplomat abroad, he returned to France and published his first major book, The History of Madness (1961). After obtaining work between 1960 and 1966 at the University of Clermont-Ferrand, he produced The Birth of the Clinic (1963) and The Order of Things (1966), publications that displayed his increasing involvement with structuralism, from which he later distanced himself. These first three histories exemplified a historiographical technique Foucault was developing called "archaeology".
From 1966 to 1968, Foucault lectured at the University of Tunis before returning to France, where he became head of the philosophy department at the new experimental university of Paris VIII. Foucault subsequently published The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969). In 1970, Foucault was admitted to the Collège de France, a membership he retained until his death. He also became active in several left-wing groups involved in campaigns against racism and human rights abuses and for penal reform. Foucault later published Discipline and Punish (1975) and The History of Sexuality (1976), in which he developed archaeological and genealogical methods that emphasized the role that power plays in society.
Foucault died in Paris from complications of HIV/AIDS; he became the first public figure in France to die from complications of the disease. His partner Daniel Defert founded the AIDES charity in his memory.

Reviews

[Roxana Chirilă]

It isn't often that I feel, when picking up a book, that I've bitten off more than I can chew. But this is the case here. It's not the book's fault; in a sense, it's not mine, either, because I couldn't have known exactly what was inside it without looking.

What you must know: This is a book that Michel Foucault never wrote and never published, even though its contents are undoubtedly Foucault's.

Rather, it's a historical document: the reconstruction of Foucault's notes for two series of lectures given five years apart in two different circumstances. The first, 1964 Clermont-Ferrand, are lectures held for psychology undergraduates; the second, 1969 Vincennes, are lectures for philosophy students. Foucault wasn't expressing his own ideas here for the sake of a wider audience; rather, he was teaching in a very specific context.

What's more, these aren't verbatim recordings of his lectures, neatly transcribed: these are his notes, that he would be using in the process of teaching (with some additions from students' notes taken during this class). In other words, they're not the lectures in themselves; they are personal notes that the lectures will be based on. Which means that I'm not sure how these were presented.

...Look, I'm no philosopher, I don't know the history of psychology and I don't really know my Foucault. I can't even begin to explain how out of my depth I am here. Foucault clearly lectures about ideas that were widely spread at the time; there's an onslaught of Freudianism (apparently quite popular at the time), there's discussion of Sade, an entire realm of psychology that doesn't seem to resemble our own, generalizing statements that I'm not sure how to take, and more.

I throw my hands up in despair and surrender: I cannot have an opinion on what he's teaching. It's summarized, alien, and I'm not sure how it fits together in a classroom setting, what opinions are his own and what opinions he's merely explaining to the audience. I can understand some of it from the notes and other meta provided in this edition by everyone who worked on it, but this isn't really a book meant to explain everything to a reader who stumbled in and found themselves out of their depth, so I'd rather not venture opinions. By the way, this is in no way a reproach; not all books are meant for everyone, nor should they be.

But I can appreciate the scholarship that went into this book. It's wonderful. The notes aren't simply shoved at us, but we get explanations about the state they were in and how they were transcribed. There are little footnotes telling us how Foucault renumbered lists, for example, how he inserted pages in the middle of lectures, what words he crossed out and replaced with others, what he underlined and more.

Aside from that, we get two good forewords telling us what we're about to read, one from Bernard E. Harcourt, the other the foreword to the French edition, by François Ewald, as well as explanations on how the text was edited, by Claude-Olivier Doron. At the end of the book (I really wish these were inserted before each lecture, though) are course contexts by Claude-Olivier Doron, explaining what was novel and interesting, and what to pay attention to in each course. And that's even without mentioning the amazing and detailed endnotes at the end of each lecture, explaining many of the things which were otherwise hard to decipher.

If you like Foucault, or if this sounds great to you for other reasons, I'd deeply recommend getting a physical copy of the book. I received the digital ARC from Columbia University Press (via NetGalley) and it's lovely, but I really wished I'd been able to shove a couple of bookmarks in it to more easily move between the lectures and the notes. It was difficult to go back and forth as much as I wanted on a tablet, and eventually I mostly gave up (which is a pity, but it was added difficulty to a text that was already, as I mentioned, too far from my area of knowledge).

This book reflects an effort I can both respect and admire, even if I must, for the time being, do it from afar. Many thanks to Columbia University Press (and NetGalley) for offering an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sexuality: The 1964 Clermont-Ferrand and 1969 Vincennes Lectures is a translated reprise of Michel Foucalt's lectues in 1964 (Clermont-Ferrand) and 1969 (Vincennes) which formed the basis of some of his later work. Released 13th July 2021 by Columbia University Press, it's 440 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats.

These lectures occurred at a time when homosexuality was still considered a medically pathological diagnosis. Although sociological upheavals and cultural shifts were being felt, the fact remained that sexuality was taboo and not well examined in most disciplines and academia was no exception generally.

This book is arranged into chronological order with the Clermont-Ferrand lecture first, followed by the Vincennes. The lectures themselves are translated directly with copious annotations and explanations. This is deeply academic material. I am a STE(A)M nerd and consider myself an academic, and I found some parts of it very onerous and inaccessible. It reminded me in both format and style of other famous transcribed lectures such as the Feynman lectures (with which I have had more success because I'm a STE(A)M nerd).

The translation work was seamless to me as an end-user (although I did not compare it to the original French).

I found this volume interesting and intriguing. It is, admittedly, a niche book and will appeal to readers interested in culture, human sexuality, and philosophy, but probably won't appeal to readers looking for an easy read. The language is rigorous and formal. I definitely don't think it's inaccessible for the average reader, but it will take some effort (and I think that's a good thing). This would make a good support text for classroom or library use, for psychology, philosophy and allied subjects, as well as a superlative read for the particularly cultural-history-interested reader.

Five stars. This is a well and deeply researched and engaging look at core concepts of sexuality and thoughts of one of the indisputably great minds of the 20th century.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

[J Earl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sexuality: The 1964 Clermont-Ferrand and 1969 Vincennes Lectures by Michel Foucault represent the first English translations of these early lectures on sexuality. These would, I think, be interesting even to someone unfamiliar with Foucault's later published work on the subject. But for those who have read all or most of his work these lectures serve to both show his thought processes on sexuality as well as make clearer the methodological connections with his earlier (than the History of Sexuality) groundbreaking work.

I always approach introductions/forewards to works like this with some apprehension. They often spend time on their own ideas rather than the theorist at hand or they become little more than a loose historical contextualization. I think the introduction here, as well as the summaries at the end, work very well for these lectures. Ideas are discussed but largely with an eye toward placing Foucault's ideas of the lectures within his personal history. The important historical contextualization is where I think Harcourt excelled. We are reminded of what was and was not part of the discourse at the time(s) as well as what Foucault was responding to and, in hindsight, what he was setting up. I think this foreward will make this more accessible to the casual reader and serve as an important reminder for those familiar with Foucault's work.

I had heard a bit about how his thinking on sexuality had evolved, so while this filled many of the gaps for me I think my biggest takeaway was having the opportunity to see how his methodology had both kept many basic aspects while also changing, partly with the topic at hand and partly with his views as history played itself out around him. In other words, while I expected this to make my next reading of his History of Sexuality more nuanced I didn't anticipate the effect this will likely have on my rereadings of his other major works.

I would recommend this to any reader who has an interest in Foucault, especially those for whom the History has become a major touchstone of their thought and/or research. I do think that a more casual reader of Foucault will find a lot here of interest though I would suggest having the History relatively fresh in your mind so you can see how his thought evolved from 1964 and 1969 to 1976 and after.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[Gianluca Salini · Rating 4 out of 5]

In assoluto il mio primo libro che come argomento centrale tratta la sessualità. Entrambe i corsi vertono sul medesimo argomento ma lo trattano in maniera estremamente diversa: il primo articola la sessualità umana in un contesto scientifico, la paragona alla sessualità non umana (come quella delle piante o degli animali) e, parlando della psicanalisi, la rende quasi una caratteristica innata che si sviluppa non solo nel corpo ma anche nella mente. Il secondo corso ha come protagonista la diade sessualità e ambiente. Gli ambienti descritti sono molteplici: quello socio-economico, quello politico, quello storico, quello religioso e quello scientifico. Il secondo corso mi ha catturato molto più del primo, le argomentazioni sono brillanti ed è interessante vedere come Foucault descriva il progredire della sessualità nel tempo e nei diversi ambienti. Non lo valuto con il massimo punteggio in quanto il testo è un agglomerato di appunti dello stesso autore e dunque a volte risultano scollegati, è facile perdersi nelle complesse argomentazioni del libro poiché, ciò che c’è scritto, serviva a Foucault solo come schema per le varie lezioni. Un altra pecca (dal carattere puramente soggettivo) è l’errore storiografico che viene fatto dall’autore nel corso delle pagine; è vero, infatti, che l’avvento del cristianesimo in Europa impone rigide regole sul matrimonio e sulle modalità entro le quali essi potevano avvenire. L’errore, a mio parere, sta nel pensare alle società antiche (quella greca e quella romana) come un oasi nella quale qualsiasi comportamento sessuale era tollerato. L’unica differenza che intercorre fra le due società, Pagana e Cristiana, è il fatto che nella prima i divieti erano intrinseci ai loro usi e costumi mentre nella seconda, con l’avvento di un istituto con influenza su larga scala come la chiesa, c’è stata la necessità di imporre la legge su un comportamento umano quale la sessualità. Il nucleo di partenza è dunque lo stesso, in nessuna delle due società si era totalmente liberi di esprimere il proprio comportamento sessuale, solo che l’intervento dell’ufficio pastorale nella questione ha dato il via a delle conseguenze che hanno fatto allontanare di molto le due società.

[Yupa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Appunti sparsi

Operazione editoriale abbastanza discutibile.
Visto che del buon Foucault è stato pubblicato praticamente tutto, si è pensato "bene" di mettere insieme suoi appunti sparsi per due corsi tenuti nella prima parte della sua carriera. E questo sono: appunti sparsi, spesso quasi solo elenchi puntati, fatti di parole o frasi molto brevi, alternati da riflessioni un po' più distese, ma sempre molto concise e poco penetrabili, specie quando il pensiero si fa particolarmente astratto. Il testo sarebbe corredato anche da una lunga serie di noti esplicative, anche per chiarire tutto il contesto
intellettuale in cui si dispiegava il ragionare e l'indagare di Foucault in quegli anni, ma sono note numerose e corpose, che costringono ad andare continuamente avanti e indietro tra di esse e il testo con gran scomodità del lettore e difficoltà a ricavarne qualcosa di organico.
L'impressione che alla fine dà il volume è quella di una sorta di saggio mancato sul pensiero del primo Foucault, saggio disperso tra le tante note summenzionate e poi in due appendici dei curatori, tra l'altro anch'esse infittite di note.
Quindi un libro difficile, non tanto per i contenuti, ma per il modo in cui è organizzato.
Poi, i contenuti che si riescono a estrarre sono comunque validi, come sempre con Foucault, anche quando azzarda e si fa contestabile. Diverse idee risentono del tempo, un tempo in cui c'era tanto parlare di psicoanalisi, lacanismo o freudo-marxismo, ma danno comunque modo di gettare uno sguardo su dibattiti che al tempo sembravano importanti e oggi forse meno, ma che Foucault riesce comunque a declinare in modo che dicano qualcosa anche ai nostri giorni.

[Angraecus Daniels · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book consists of lecture notes, not transcripts. It is literally a volume of bullet points and footnotes.