Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Vintage (1990), Paperback, 304 pages
Description
In this sequel to The History of Sexuality, Volume I: An Introduction, the brilliantly original French thinker who died in 1984 gives an analysis of how the ancient Greeks perceived sexuality. Throughout The Uses of Pleasure Foucault analyzes an irresistible array of ancient Greek texts on eroticism as he tries to answer basic questions: How in the West did sexual experience become a moral issue? And why were other appetites of the body, such as hunger, and collective concerns, such as civic duty, not subjected to the numberless rules and regulations and judgments that have defined, if not confined, sexual behavior?
User reviews
LibraryThing member AlexTheHunn
Foucault describes Victorian and twentieth-century Western sexuality as excessive talking about what we say we are not going to talk about. He contends that the unbridled discussion of not talking about sex is in fact a form of talking about sex.
LibraryThing member danlai
I met this guy at a party who wanted to do nothing but talk about Foucault (I didn't like him very much). HIS opinion was that Foucault was awful. I wouldn't say awful, but he is not easy to read. If I met Foucault at a party, I would probably like him as much as I did that guy who insulted him.
No rating because I skipped about half the book. Oops!
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But he wrote about interesting things.No rating because I skipped about half the book. Oops!
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LibraryThing member kwskultety
Much better than vol.1; and a great final section about Greek love of boys/men, Platonic/Socratic love, and "true" love.
Subjects
Language
Original publication date
1984
Physical description
304 p.; 7.9 inches
ISBN
0394751221 / 9780394751221