Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 13:44:39 -0500
From: sam binkley <sbinkley-AT-erols.com>
Subject: Re: sexual ethics



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Rebecca:

I think this is a very interesting quesiton. I am giving a paper at the
Eastern Sociological Society in Boston (thousands of miles from you)
called "the California Techniques of the self", which raises some of
these questions.  (I can send it along if you are interested)

I agree that Foucault's dissing of the california ethics is flip and
reductive, and a truly qualitative approach to many of the cultural
practices that carry on the legacy of counter cultural therapeutic
consumerism should be studied in the light of Foucault's concern with
ethics.

My study is not concerned with literature and sexuality so much as style
of life: how different counterculturals lived, day to day, understanding
their lives as an exercise of the self involving food, the division of
time and space, the body etc.  I'm taking out the standard thesis on the
"culture of narcissism", which sees glib confromity masquerading as
introspection, and opening these practices up to, hopefully, a new and
more sympathetic reading.

have you checked out the first volume of "the essential works", ed paul
rabinow? there are lots of interviews and other goodies.  The reality of
it is, Foucault just didn't talk much about contemporary life, outside
his california remark.  If he did, I think he might have said something
about self help literature.

Other good secondary works are: Halperin's "saint foucault", and the
debate that develops between himself and james miller, author of
"passion of michel foucault" (they attacked eachother in salmagundi,
differences and other periodicals for a few years, uncovering many of
these issues.

sam





Luckhurst wrote:

>  Okay, okay!  I'll post something! I wonder if anyone out there can
> recommend some reading for me.  I'm based in the UK reading for a PhD,
> and I'm looking at Foucault's work on sexual ethics.  I shall be using
> it to look at present day 'self-help' texts (eg Men are From Mars
> etc)  I want to see what kind of ethics these books promote, and what
> kind of subject they are aiming to produce.  I want to try to avoid a
> simplistic dismissal of them as being either purely subjugating
> discourses or symptomatic of the 'Californian cult of the self' about
> which Foucault was so sniffy.  I also want to avoid an uncritical
> celebration of their liberatory potential, as proposed by some other
> scholars - I shall mention no names!! It seems to me that these texts
> must tell us something our culture because they are so popular and
> sell in such huge numbers - and here in the UK they have, in many
> instances, entered into common parlance (I expect it's the same
> elsewhere).  Can anyone suggest either:
>
>    * any specific sections of Foucault's work I should look at
>      (besides the History of Sex trilogy), or
>    * any particularly interesting/popular self-help books (especially
>      those about relationships), or
>    * the work of any other theorists/scholars which might be relevant?
>
>  I would really appreciate any suggerstions, advice or comments.Thanks
> for helping. Rebecca.  -----Original Message-----
> From: anand-bhatt <anand.bhatt-AT-vsnl.com>
> To: 'foucault-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu'
> <foucault-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>
> Date: 18 February 1999 09:50
> Subject: RE: ???
>  >The list is in sleepy time they tell me and it will liven up once
> somebody posts something. So post something.
> >

--
____________________________
Sam Binkley
Department of Sociology, New School University
65 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10003

Address: PO Box 20202, New York, NY 10009
phone: (212) 420 9425   web: http://www.erols.com/sbinkley/


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