Foucault, Sexuality, Antiquity

157 Pages·2022·4.137 MB·English

by  Sandra Boehringer, Daniele Lorenzini

FOUCAULT, SEXUALITY, ANTIQUITY
Foucault, Sexuality, Antiquity, published for the first time in English, takes an inter-
disciplinary approach to exploring how the work of Michel Foucault has influenced
studiesofancientGreeceandRome.
Foucault’sTheHistoryofSexualityhashadaprofoundandlastingimpactacrossthe
humanities and social sciences. In the two volumes dedicated to pagan antiquity,
Foucault provided scholars with new questions for addressing ancient Greek and
Roman societies, and an originalepistemological framework for thinking about ero-
ticismandabouttheprocessesbywhichindividualsareledtorecognizethemselvesas
the subjects of their desires. Now, decades later, the scholars in this volume explore
Foucault’s role in shaping and reorienting discussions of antiquity in the fields of
philosophy,genderstudies,andpsychoanalysis,amongothers.
A multidisciplinary exploration of Foucault’s work and its relationship to our
understanding of ancient Greco-Roman societies, Foucault, Sexuality, Antiquity will
be of interest to students and scholars in classical studies, philosophy, gender studies,
andancienthistory.
Sandra Boehringer is Associate Professor of Greek History at the University of
Strasbourg, France. She is the author of Female Homosexuality in Ancient Greece and
Rome (Routledge, 2021) and has edited, with Laurie Laufer, Après Les Aveux de la
chair:GénéalogiedusujetchezMichelFoucault(Epel,2020).
Daniele Lorenzini is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of War-
wick, UK, where he co-chairs the Centre for Research in Post-Kantian European
Philosophy.Heistheauthor,mostrecently,ofTheForceofTruth:Critique,Genealogy,
and Truth-Telling in Michel Foucault (Chicago, forthcoming), and the co-editor of The
ChicagoFoucaultProject.
Praise for the original French edition, Foucault, la sexualité, l’Antiquité (Éditions
Kimé, 2016):
“Thepresentbookwillremainahighlystimulatingworkforanyonewishingtogo
beyond well-worn paths, by making use of the new epistemological framework
Foucault provides for approaching the question of ancient sexuality.”
Arnaud Paturet, Bryn Mawr Classical Review
“Foucault, Sexuality, Antiquity sets out to provide an update on Foucauldian
thought regarding sexuality.… The book is a success, both at the level of the
quality of the individual contributions, the clarity of their discussions, but also in
the ways they complement one another.”
Jan Nelis, Anabases
FOUCAULT, SEXUALITY,
ANTIQUITY
Edited by Sandra Boehringer and
Daniele Lorenzini
Coverimage:YoungGanymedewithhishoopandrooster.©GettyImages|
DEA/G.DAGLIORTI.
Firstpublished2022
byRoutledge
4ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN
andbyRoutledge
605ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10158
RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness
©2022selectionandeditorialmatter,SandraBoehringerandDanieleLorenzini;
individualchapters,thecontributors
TherightofSandraBoehringerandDanieleLorenzinitobeidentifiedasthe
authorsoftheeditorialmaterial,andoftheauthorsfortheirindividualchapters,
hasbeenassertedinaccordancewithsections77and78oftheCopyright,
DesignsandPatentsAct1988.
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedor
utilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,now
knownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,orinany
informationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwritingfromthe
publishers.
Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksorregistered
trademarks,andareusedonlyforidentificationandexplanationwithoutintentto
infringe.
PublishedwiththesupportoftheCentredeRecherchesPsychanalyse,Médecine
etSociété(CRPMS,UniversitéParisCité);l’AssociationpourleCentreMichel
Foucault;andl’InstitutUniversitairedeFrance.
OriginallypublishedinFrenchasFoucault,lasexualité,l’AntiquitébyÉditions
Kimé,Paris,2016.
BritishLibraryCataloguing-in-PublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Acatalogrecordhasbeenrequestedforthisbook
ISBN:978-1-032-01459-3(hbk)
ISBN:978-1-032-01452-4(pbk)
ISBN:978-1-003-17873-6(ebk)
DOI:10.4324/9781003178736
TypesetinBembo
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
CONTENTS
List of Contributors vii
Acknowledgements x
Translators’ Note xi
PART
Introduction 1
1 Problematizing Sexuality: Foucault, the Ancients, and Us 3
Sandra Boehringer and Daniele Lorenzini
TRANSLATEDBYMERYLALTMAN
2 The Use of Pleasure and The Care of the Self: Genealogy
of a Text 11
Frédéric Gros
TRANSLATEDBYMERYLALTMAN
PARTI
Before Sexuality 21
3 To Refuse Universals: A Foucauldian History of Ancient
Sexuality, History in the Present Tense 23
Sandra Boehringer
TRANSLATEDBYMERYLALTMAN
4 Perversion in Antiquity? Foucault, Seneca, and Psychiatric
Reasoning 48
Kirk Ormand
vi Contents
PARTII
What Is the Subject? 65
5 “The Sexual Scene Concerns a Single Character” 67
Jean Allouch
TRANSLATEDBYKIRSTENELLERBY
6 Subject of Desire and Subject of Discourse in Foucault:
Sexuality and the Erotic Relations of Greek Women and Men 74
Claude Calame
TRANSLATEDBYMERYLALTMAN
PARTIII
Questions of Desire 89
7 Ancient Sexuality and the Principle of Activity: Foucauldian
Paradoxes About Pederasty 91
Olivier Renaut
TRANSLATEDBYMERYLALTMAN
8 Desire as the “Historical Transcendental” of the History of
Sexuality 103
Daniele Lorenzini
TRANSLATEDBYMERYLALTMAN
PARTIV
Rethinking Bodies, Reshaping Norms 113
9 Body of Pleasure, Body of Desire: Augustine’s Theory of
Marriage as Reread by Michel Foucault 115
Arianna Sforzini
TRANSLATEDBYMERYLALTMAN
10 From Hermeneutics to Strategics: Gender, Sexualities, Norms,
and Psychoanalysis 126
Thamy Ayouch
TRANSLATEDBYKIRSTENELLERBY
Index of Ancient Authors and Figures 141
Index of Modern Authors 142
CONTRIBUTORS
Jean Allouch is apracticing psychoanalyst workinginParis. Beginningin 1963 he
attended the seminars of Jacques Lacan (who was also his analyst). After the dis-
solution of the École freudienne de Paris, he participated in the creation of the
journal Littoral, and then in the founding of the École lacanienne de psychanalyse.
With the book series “Les Grands classiques de l’érotologie moderne,” which he
oversees for Epel, he strives to bring erudite works in the field of gay and lesbian
studies to a wider audience. His bibliography includes La Psychanalyse est-elle un
exercice spirituel? Réponse à Michel Foucault (2007); Lacan Love: Seminars and Other
Works (2007); Contre l’éternité: Ogawa, Mallarmé, Lacan (2009); L’Amour Lacan
(2009). Recently he has published L'Autresexe (2016); Pourquoi y a-t-il de l’excitation
sexuelle plutôt que rien? (2017); La Scène lacanienne et son cercle magique (2017); Nou-
velles remarques sur le passage à l’acte (2019); and Transmaître (2020). All these works
have been translated into Spanish.
Meryl Altman is retired from DePauw University in Indiana, where she taught
literature and women’s/gender studies. Her publications include articles on
Sappho, metaphor, 20th-century American literature, the history of sexuality, and
Simone de Beauvoir, the topic of her book Beauvoir in Time (Brill, 2020).
Thamy Ayouch is a psychoanalyst and professor at the Université Paris Cité. His
research deals with the interactions of psychoanalysis with philosophy, political
studies, gender studies, queer studies, and post-colonial and decolonial studies. He
has been working on gender, sexuality, race, and class discrimination. He has
published various books and articles in French, English, Spanish, and Portuguese.
His latest book is Psychanalyse et hybridité: Genre, colonialité, subjectivations (2018). He
translateditintoPortugueseandSpanish,anditwaspublishedrespectivelyinBrazil
(2019) and Mexico (2020).
viii ListofContributors
Sandra Boehringer is Associate Professor of Greek History at the Université de
Strasbourg. Her work deals with questions of gender and sexuality in Greek and
Roman Antiquity. She is the author of L’Homosexualité féminine dans l’Antiquité
grecque et romaine (Les Belles Lettres, 2007), now translated into English as Female
Homosexuality in Ancient Greece and Rome (Routledge, 2021), and has written the
entryfor“Female Homosexuality”intheOxfordClassicalDictionary(online)aswell
as numerous studies on the new Sappho fragments. Her essay, “Not a Freak but a
Jack-in-the-Box: Philaenis in Martial, Epigram VII, 67” (Archimède: Archéologie et
histoire ancienne [En ligne] 5, 2018) was awarded the Paul Rehak Prize from the
Lambda Classical Caucus of the Society for Classical Studies. Recently she has
edited, along with Laurie Laufer, the collection Après Les Aveux de la chair:
Généalogie du sujet chez Michel Foucault (Epel, 2020).
Claude Calame is Directeur d’études at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences
Sociales in Paris. He has taught at the University of Urbino, at Yale, and at the
University of Lausanne. His work focuses particularly on a historical and critical
anthropology of Greek poetic forms, including the forms of erotic poetry sung by
men or by women. His recent works include L’Éros dans la Grèce antique (Belin,
2009, 3rd edition; English translation, Princeton University Press, 1999); Prométhée
généticien (Les Belles Lettres, 2011); Mythe et histoire dans l’Antiquité grecque (Les
Belles Lettres, 2011, 2nd edition; English translation, Princeton University Press,
2003); Qu’est-ce que la mythologie grecque? (Gallimard, 2015, 2nd edition; English
translation, Cambridge University Press, 2009); and La tragédie chorale: Poésie grecque
et rituel musical (Les Belles Lettres, 2017; English translation, Cambridge University
Press, forthcoming).
KirstenEllerbyhasbeennavigating betweenFrenchandEnglishsincechildhood.
Fiveyearsago,afterawonderfulexperiencetranslatingFrançoisAnsermet’sTheArt
of Making Children (2017), she decided to take the plunge and make translation her
primary professional activity. Currently she is doing an MA in Translation with
The Open University, UK.
Frédéric Gros is Professor of Political Humanities at Sciences-Po, Paris. His most
noteworthy works include États de violence: Essai sur la fin de la guerre (Gallimard,
2006) and Le Principe sécurité (Gallimard, 2012). He is the editor of the last four
volumesofMichelFoucault’slectures attheCollège deFrance, and alsoeditedthe
collectionFoucault:Lecourage delavérité(PUF,2012) aswellastheBibliothèquede
la Pléiade edition of Foucault’s collected works (Gallimard, 2015) and Les Aveux de
la chair (Gallimard, 2018). Since Désobéir, translated into English as Disobey: A Phi-
losophy of Resistance (Reverso, 2020), he has published La Honte est un sentiment
révolutionnaire (Albin Michel, 2021).
Daniele Lorenzini is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of
Warwick, where he co-chairs the Centre for Research in Post-Kantian European
ListofContributors ix
Philosophy. He specializes in 20th-century French philosophy, moral and political
philosophy, and ordinary language philosophy. He is the author, most recently, of
The Force of Truth: Critique, Genealogy, and Truth-Telling in Michel Foucault (Uni-
versity of Chicago Press, forthcoming). He is the co-editor of several volumes
collecting previously unpublished lectures and texts by Foucault, including Mad-
ness, Language, Literature (University of Chicago Press, forthcoming), Speaking the
Truth about Oneself (University of Chicago Press, 2021), and Discourse and Truth
(University of Chicago Press, 2019). He is also the co-editor of two book series,
Philosophie du présent (Vrin) and The Chicago Foucault Project (University of Chicago
Press), as well as of the peer-reviewed journal Foucault Studies.
KirkOrmandistheNathanGreenbergProfessorofClassicsatOberlinCollege.He
haspublishedontherepresentationofwomeninancientGreeceandtheconstruction
ofsexual identitiesinancient Greeceand Rome.His publicationsinclude Controlling
Desires: Sexuality in Ancient Greece and Rome (2nd edition, University of Texas Press,
2018),andTheHesiodicCatalogueofWomenandArchaicGreece(CambridgeUniversity
Press, 2014). He is the co-editor, with Ruby Blondell, of Ancient Sex: New Essays
(Ohio State University Press, 2015). He also contributed to the Companion to Greek
and Roman Sexualities, edited by Thomas Hubbard (Blackwell 2013), with a chapter
titled“Foucault’sHistoryofSexualityandtheDisciplineofClassics.”Hisrecentessay,
“AtalantaandSappho:WomeninandoutofTime,”inNarrativesofTimeandGender
inAntiquity,editedbyEstherEidenowandLisaMaurizio(RoutledgePress,2020),was
awarded the Paul Rehak Prize from the Lambda Classical Caucus of the Society for
ClassicalStudies.
Olivier Renaut is Professor of Ancient Philosophy at Paris Nanterre University
and member of the Institut de Recherches Philosophiques (EA 373). His research
focuses onpsychology,ethics,andpoliticsinPlatoandAristotle, through theprism
of passions. His work includes Platon: La médiation des émotions (Vrin, 2014) on
Plato, and La Rhétorique des passions (Classiques Garnier, 2021) on Aristotle. He is
the co-editor, with Luc Brisson, of Érotique et politique chez Plato: Erôs, genre et
sexualité dans la cité platonicienne (Academia Verlag, 2017), and, with Laura Can-
diotto, of Emotions in Plato (Brill, 2020).
Arianna Sforzini is a postdoctoral researcher in aesthetics at the University of
FribourgandteachesphilosophyatSciences-PoParis.ShewroteaPhDdissertation
on the role of theatre in the philosophy of Michel Foucault (2015, Université
Paris-Est Créteil / Università degli Studi di Padova), and she is the author of
numerous articles and essays on Foucault’s thought and contemporary philosophy,
particularly in its relation to the arts and the performances of the body. As a guest
researcher at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, she has worked on a new
inventory of the Michel Foucault archives (2016–2019). She is the author of Les
Scènes de la vérité: Michel Foucault et le théâtre (Le Bord de l’eau, 2017) and Michel
Foucault: Une pensée du corps (Presses Universitaires de France, 2014).