What Is a Desiring Man?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22439/fs.vi29.6215Keywords:
Confessions of the Flesh, Desiring man, History of Sexuality, Christianity, Saint-Augustine, John CassianAbstract
This article investigates Foucault’s account of desiring man by drawing upon History of Sexuality vol. 4, Confessions of the Flesh. In order to do so, the article focuses on Foucault’s diagnosis of the Christian elaboration of “the analytic of the subject of concupiscence” that closes Confessions of the Flesh. As the article shows, “the analytic of the subject of concupiscence” inspires Foucault’s account of desiring man. However, Foucault’s diagnosis of the Christian elaboration of “the analytic of concupiscence” proves to be debatable as it relies on a problematic interplay between Cassian’s and Saint Augustine’s account of concupiscence. The article exposes the problems that such interplay supposes by addressing the contrast between Cassian’s and Augustine’s perspective on both concupiscence and the human condition. Despite this problematic aspect of Foucault’s investigation of Christianity, the article argues that the publication of Confessions of the Flesh is central to understanding Foucault’s History of Sexuality. By providing new elements of analysis, the book reopens Foucault’s genealogical diagnosis of the formation of the medical account of sexuality and allows us to problematise new avenues for developing Foucault’s investigation in depth.
References
Beistegui, Miguel, The Government of Desire: A Genealogy of the Liberal Subject. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018.
Bernauer, James, and Jeremy Carrette (ed.), Foucault and Theology: The Politics of Religious Experience. Aldershot, Hants, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2002.
Boehringer, Sandra, and Laurie Laufer (ed.), Après Les Aveux de la chair. Généalogie du sujet chez Michel Foucault. Paris: Epel, 2020.
Brown, Peter, Augustine of Hippo, a Biography. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1967.
Brown, Peter, The Body and Society. Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988.
Büttgen, Philippe, Philippe Chevallier, Agustín Colombo, and Arianna Sforzini (ed.), Foucault, les Pères, le sexe. Autour des Aveux de la chair. Paris: Éditions de La Sorbonne (in press).
Cassian, John, The Conferences. New York: Paulist, 1997.
Cassien, Jean, Les conférences. Paris: Éditions du Cerf, « sources chrétiennes », 1955.
Castro Gómez, Santiago, Historia de la gubernamentalidad II. Filosofía, cristianismo y sexualidad en Michel Foucault. Bogotá: Siglo del hombre Editores, 2016.
Candiotto, Cesar, and Pedro De Souza (ed.), Foucault e o cristianismo. Belo Horizonte: Autêntica Editora, 2012.
Chadwick, Owen, John Cassian, a Study in Primitive Monasticism. London: Cambridge University Press, 1950.
Chevallier, Philippe, Michel Foucault et le christianisme. Lyon: ENS Éditions, 2011.
Chevallier, Philippe, “Michel Foucault et le ‘soi’ chrétien”, Astérion [en ligne (online)], 2013. https://doi.org/10.4000/asterion.2403
Clark, Elizabeth, “Foucault, the Fathers, and the sex,” Journal of the American Academy of religion, 56:4 (1988), 619-641.
Clark, Elizabeth, “L’Augustin de Foucault au risque de l’œuvre augustinienne”, in Foucault, les Pères et le sexe, ed. Büttgen Philippe, Philippe Chevallier, Agustín Colombo, and Arianna Sforzini. Paris: Éditions de La Sorbonne, in press.
Colombo, Agustín, “L’expérience des Pères: Les Aveux de la chair de Michel Foucault et la formation de l’expérience de la chair,” Revue théologique de Louvain (in press).
Colombo, Agustín, “Michel Foucault y el hombre de deseo. Las Confesiones de la carne y los límites de la Historia de la sexualidad,“ Anales del Seminario de Historia de la Filosofìa 37:1 (2020), 123-135. https://doi.org/10.5209/ashf.66164
Dilhe, Albrecht, The Theory of Will in Classical Antiquity. Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1982.
Foucault, Michel, Abnormal. Lectures at the Collège de France 1974-1975. London: Verso, 2003.
Foucault, Michel, “Foucault,” in Essential Works 2: Aesthetics, Methods, and Epistemology, ed. James Faubion, 459-463. New York: New Press, 1998.
Foucault, Michel, History of Sexuality vol. 1. An Introduction. New York: Pantheon Books, 1978.
Foucault, Michel, History of Sexuality, vol. 2. The Use of Pleasure [1985]. New York: Vintage, 1990.
Foucault, Michel, History of Sexuality, vol. 3. The Care of the Self. New York: Pantheon Books, 1986.Foucault, Michel, History of Sexuality, vol. 4. Confessions of the Flesh. New York: Pantheon Books, 2021.
Foucault, Michel, Histoire de la sexualité, vol. 4. Les Aveux de la chair. Paris: Gallimard, 2018.
Foucault, Michel, On the Government of the Living. Lectures at the Collège de France 1979-1980. Hampshire, England: Palgrave MacMillan, 2014.
Foucault, Michel, Madness and Civilisation. A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. New York: Vintage books, 1988.
Foucault, Michel, “Sexuality and solitude,” in Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth. New York: New Press, 1997.
Foucault, Michel, Subjectivity and Truth. Lectures at the Collège de France 1980-1981. London: Palgrave McMillan UK, 2017.
Foucault, Michel, Subjectivité et vérité. Cours au Collège de France 1980-1981. Paris: Seuil/Gallimar, 2014.
Foucault, Michel, “The subject and the power,” in Michel Foucault, Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics [1982], ed. Hubert Dreyfus and Paul Rabinow, 208-226. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983.
Colombás, García M., El monacato primitivo. Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 2004.
Harmless, William, Desert Christians. An Introduction to the Literature of Early Monasticism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Jordan, Mark, Convulsing Bodies. Religion and Resistance in Foucault. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2015.
Kasumi Clements, Niki, Sites of the Ascetic Self. John Cassian and Christian Ethical Formation. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame, 2020.
Libera, Alain, L’invention du sujet moderne. Cours du Collège de France 2013-2014. Paris: Librairie philosophique Vrin, 2015.
Libera, Alain, Archéologie du sujet II. La quête de l’identité [2008]. Paris: Librairie philosophique Vrin, 2016.
Lorenzini, Daniele, “The emergence of desire: notes toward a political history of the will,” Critical Inquiry 45 (2019), 448-470. https://doi.org/10.1086/700997
Irrera, Orazio, “L’empire de l’involontaire et la volonté de n’être pas gouverné,” Revista de Filosofia Aurora 31:52 (2019), 224-256.
Pandolfi, Alessandro, Tre studi su Foucault. Napoli: Terzo Millenio, 2000.
Saint Augustine, De nuptiis et concupiscentia, Patrologia Latina 44.
Senellart, Michel, “Le combat de la chasteté,” notice in Œuvres, Michel Foucault, 1644-1648. Paris: Gallimard “Bibliothèque de la Pléiade,” 2015.
Senellart, Michel, Les Arts de gouverner. Du regimen médiéval au concept de gouvernement. Paris: Seuil, 1995.
Senellart, Michel, “Paradossi e attualità della soggettivazione cristiana,” in Dopo Foucault. Genealogie del postmoderno, ed. Eleonora De Conciliis, 33-51. Milano: Mimesis, 2007.
Stewart, Columba, Cassian the Monk. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Villacañas Berlanga, José Luis, Neoliberalismo como teología política. Habermas, Foucault, Dardot, Laval y la historia del capitalismo contemporáneo. Barcelona: Ned Ediciones, 2020.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors retain copyright to their work, but assign the right of the first publication to Foucault Studies. The work is subject to a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, but despite these restrictions, authors can take for granted that Foucault Studies will permit articles published in Foucault Studies to be translated or reprinted in another format such as a book providing a full reference is made to Foucault Studies as the original place of publication.
