Author Archives: Олег Ноговицин

Publication Details

Abstract

The publication of The Confessions of the Flesh (vol. IV of The History of Sexuality) constitutes an important Patristic and philosophical event by revealing the extent of Michel Foucault’s knowledge of Patristic literature. For demonstrating the contribution of Foucault to our knowledge of attitudes to sexuality on the part of Early Christians and his epistemological limits, this study analyzes the archeological method of his later period as well as his description of Christian virginity, interpretation of Augustine’s concept of sexual relations and other topics. But some of Foucault’s concepts should be placed in perspective. Due to specific mode of historicity which Foucault chooses, his archeology elaborates a narrative focused on the concepts of “governmentality” (gouvernementalité), truth, and subjectivity, which tends to even up historical nuances. Thus, after choosing the second century for analysis, Foucault consciously omits the study of all influences between Judaic and Christian prohibitions, between Gnosticism and Christianity, as well as impact of Philo of Alexandria and Apostle Paul on the formation of a Christian sexual ethics. In addition, some evidence justifiably used by Foucault could be interpreted by following approaches quite different from his hypothesis. Such an example is the spread of virginity among Christian women, which could be explained not only by the experience of cleansing the soul, adopted from monastic ascetic practices, but also by the emergence of a “new model of the feminine” which breaks apart from the model of the feminine as the patriarchal society saw it. Another example is Foucault’s identification of the subject of desire with the subject of right, which transforms the Augustine’s concept of libido into the source of the later codifications of sexual acts, neglects the positive aspect of Augustine’s thought. The subject recognizes the spontaneity of libido, “coiled in the hollows of the will,” and this recognition gives place to activity of divine grace establishing the order according to which the will receives the freedom as a medium between the subject and his actions.

Keywords

Foucault, patristics, sexuality, technology of the self, virginity, Augustin.

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© Jérôme Lagouanère, 2020  © Sergey Gashkov, transl., 2020