Power and Resistance Part four of Foucault’s History of Sexuality begins with a discussion and definition of power. Foucault argues that through most of Western history since the medieval period, power has been equivalent to what has been codified into law. In political thought and analysis, he argues, we still have not “cut the head […]
Multiple Discourses, Similar Objectives In closing his essay Essentialism and Queer History, Rictor Norton has this powerful reminder for his readers: “It is naive to think that one theory or the other will inevitably affect the predominantly negative attitudes of modern Western society,” and suggests that, in place of abiding by one monolithic theory of […]
Defining, Categorizing, and Codifying The common portrait of the Victorian era and the early beginnings of modernity is not that of a time of great discussion about sex and sexuality, but rather of a period of highly accentuated prudishness on all levels, of a time when sexuality was removed from the public consciousness in the […]
