Overcoming “the Penetration Model”: Rethinking Sexuality with Foucault, Shusterman, and Contemporary Feminism
DOI :
https://doi.org/10.22439/fs.i36.7232Mots-clés :
Michel Foucault, Aesthetics of Existence, History of Sexuality, Richard Shusterman, Somaesthetics, Contemporary feminismRésumé
In the present contribution, dealing with the intellectual legacy of Michel Foucault forty years after his death, I offer an analysis of some possible relations between certain aspects of Foucault’s project of a history of sexuality, Richard Shusterman’s somaesthetic investigation of the experience of lovemaking, and some recent attempts to critically rethink sexuality in the context of feminist scholarship. My approach towards Foucault’s thinking in this contribution is not philological or attentively reconstructive but rather selective and interpretive. In the first section, I briefly examine Foucault’s general view of sexuality as a “limit-experience”; then, in the second section, I specifically focus my attention on his (critical) analysis of “the penetration model”—an expression coined by Foucault in the context of his inquiry into Greco-Latin sexual culture. In the third section, I take into examination the important influence of Foucault’s aesthetics of existence on Shusterman’s somaesthetics and, in particular, on his book Ars Erotica. Finally, in the fourth section, I make reference—without any ambition of completeness or systematicity—to the question of the relation between Foucault’s thinking and contemporary feminism, focusing my attention on some recent proposals for a critical rethinking of sexuality by feminist scholars such as Bini Adamczak, Ilka Quindeau, Amia Srinivasan, Tamara Tenenbaum, and bell hooks.
Références
Adamczak, Bini, "On Circlusion" [2016], trans. S. Lewis, The New Inquiry, 22 August 2022 (https://thenewinquiry.com/six-years-and-counting-of-circlusion).
Adorno, Theodor W., Aesthetic Theory [1970], trans. R. Hullot-Kentor. London and New York: Continuum, 2002.
Castelli, Federica, "Bodies in Alliance and New Sites of Resistance: Performing the Political in Neoliberal Public Spaces," in Bodies in the Streets: The Somaesthetics of City Life, ed. R. Shusterman, 177-194. Leiden: Brill, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004411135_010
Faubion, James D., "Introduction," in Michel Foucault, The Essential Works 1954-1984. Vol. 2: Aesthetics, Method, and Epistemology, ed. J. D. Faubion, XIII-XLIII. New York: New Press, 1998.
Feenberg, Andrew, The Ruthless Critique of Everything Existing: Nature and Revolution in
Marcuse's Philosophy of Praxis. London: Verso, 2023. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003411826-9
Foucault, Michel, The History of Sexuality. Vol. 1: An Introduction [1976], trans. R. Hurley. New York: Vintage Books, 1980 (cited as HS 1).
Foucault, Michel, The History of Sexuality. Vol. 3: The Care of the Self [1984], trans. R. Hurley. New York: Vintage Books, 1986 (cited as HS 3).
Foucault, Michel, The History of Sexuality. Vol. 2: The Use of Pleasure [1984], trans. R. Hurley. New York: Vintage Books, 1990 (as HS 2).
Foucault, Michel, Remarks on Marx [1981], trans. R. J. Goldstein and J. Cascaito. New York: Semiotext(e), 1991 (cited as RM).
Foucault, Michel, The Essential Works 1954-1984. Vol. 1: Ethics. Subjectivity and Truth [1994], ed. P. Rabinow. New York: New Press, 1997 (cited as EW 1).
Foucault, Michel, The Essential Works 1954-1984. Vol. 2: Aesthetics, Method, and Epistemology [1994], ed. J. D. Faubion. New York: New Press, 1998 (cited as EW 2).
Foucault, Michel, "What is Critique?" and "The Culture of the Self" [2015], trans. C. O'Farrell, ed. H.-P. Fruchaud, D. Lorenzini and A. I. Davidson. Chicago and London: The Univer-sity of Chicago Press, 2024. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226383583.001.0001
Fraser, Nancy, "Foucault on Modern Power: Empirical Insights and Normative Confu-sions," Praxis International 1 (1981), 272 ff.
Gadamer, Hans-Georg, Truth and Method [1960], trans. J. Weinsheimer and D. G. Marshall. London and New York: Continuum, 2004.
Habermas, Jürgen, The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity [1985], trans. F. Lawrence. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1987.
Han, Byung-Chul, Agonie des Eros. Berlin: Matthes & Seitz, 2012.
Heyes, Cressida J., "Introduction," in Foucault and Feminism, special issue of Foucault Stud-ies 16 (2013), 3-14. https://doi.org/10.22439/fs.v0i16.4114
Honneth, Axel, The Critique of Power: Reflective Stages in a Critical Social Theory [1985], trans. K. Baynes. London and Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1991.
Hooks, Bell, The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love. New York, London, Toronto and Sidney: Atria Books, 2004.
Iofrida, Manlio, and Diego Melegari, Foucault. Roma: Carocci, 2017.
Kelly, Mark, Foucault's History of Sexuality Volume I: The Will to Knowledge. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2013.
Kottman, Paul A., Love as Human Freedom. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2017.
Kremer, Alexander (ed.), Pragmatism and Sexuality, special issue of Pragmatism Today 14:2 (2023), XI-XLII.
Lipovestski, Gilles, and Jean Serroy, L'esthétisation du monde. Vivre à l'âge du capitalisme arti-ste. Paris: Gallimard, 2016.
Lonzi, Carla, Sputiamo su Hegel e altri scritti [1974], ed. A. Buttarelli. Milano: La tartaruga, 2023.
Marcuse, Herbert, Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud. Boston: Beacon Press, 1966.
Marino, Stefano, "Truth, Aura, Eros," Journal of Adorno Studies 1:1 (2024: forthcoming).
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, Phenomenology of Perception, trans. C. Smith. London: Routledge, 1962
Michaud, Yves, L'Art à l'état gazeux. Essai sur le triomphe de l'esthétique. Paris: Éditions Stock, 2003.
Nancy, Jean-Luc, Sexistence [2016], trans. S. Miller. New York: Fordham University Press, 2021. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1ks0cvs
Nolan, Megan, Acts of Desperation. New York: Random House, 2021.
Petrachi, Lorenzo, Rovine dell'amicizia. Il progetto incompiuto di Michel Foucault. Napoli: Or-thotes, 2022.
Quindeau, Ilka, "Sexualität und Geschlecht: Why Bodies Matter," in Kritische Theorie und Feminismus, ed. K. Stögner and A. Colligs, 307-327. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2022.
Rabinow, Paul, "Introduction: The History of Systems of Thought," in Michel Foucault, The Essential Works 1954-1984. Vol. 1: Ethics. Subjectivity and Truth. ed. P. Rabinow, XI-XLII. New York: New Press, 1997.
Recalcati, Massimo, Esiste il rapporto sessuale? Desiderio, amore e godimento. Milano: Raffaello Cortina, 2021.
Recchia Luciani, Francesca R., "Introduzione. Cos'è sessistenza: filosofia dell'esistenza ses-suata," in Jean-Luc Nancy, Sessistenza, ed. F. R. Lecchia Luciani, 8-23. Genova: il Me-langolo, 2019.
Rorty, Richard, Philosophical Papers. Vol. 2: Essays on Heidegger and Others. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511609039
Serra, Ilaria, "'Street' is Feminine in Italian: Feminine Bodies and Street Spaces," in Bodies in the Streets: The Somaesthetics of City Life, ed. R. Shusterman, 153-176. Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004411135_009
Shokrisarari, Arash "Foucault in the Cave with Gadamer: On Truth, Understanding, and Experience," in Truth in the Late Foucault: Antiquity, Sexuality, and Psychoanalysis, ed. P. Allen Miller, 29-48. London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2024. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350357297.ch-002
Shusterman, Richard, Pragmatist Aesthetics: Living Beauty, Rethinking Art. Lanham-Boulder-New York-Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000² (cited as PA).
Shusterman, Richard, Body Consciousness: A Philosophy of Mindfulness and Somaesthetics. Cambridge-New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008 (cited as BC). https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511802829
Shusterman, Richard, "Aesthetic Experience: From Analysis to Eros," in Aesthetic Experi-ence, ed. R. Shusterman and A. Tomlin, 79-97. New York: Routledge, 2008.
Shusterman, Richard, "Soma, Self, and Society: Somaesthetics as Pragmatist Meliorism," Metaphilosophy 42:3 (2011) 314-327. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9973.2011.01687.x
Shusterman, Richard, "Somaesthetics and the Fine Art of Eating," in Body Aesthetics, ed. S. Irvin, 261-280. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198716778.003.0015
Shusterman, Richard, "Fits of Fashion: The Somaesthetics of Style," in Philosophical Perspec-tives on Fashion, ed. G. Matteucci and S. Marino. London-New York: Bloomsbury, 2017, 92-106. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781474237505.ch-004
Shusterman, Richard, "Bodies in the Streets: The Soma, the City, and the Art of Living," in Bodies in the Streets: The Somaesthetics of City Life, ed. R. Shusterman, 13-37. Leiden: Brill, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004411135_003
Shusterman, Richard, Ars Erotica: Sex and Somaesthetics in the Classical Arts of Love. Cam-bridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021 (cited as AE). https://doi.org/10.1017/9780511791888
Shusterman, Richard, "Pragmatism and Sex: An Unfulfilled Connection," Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 57:1 (2021), 1-31. https://doi.org/10.2979/trancharpeirsoc.57.1.01
Shusterman, Richard, "Sex, Emancipation, and Aesthetics: Ars Erotica and the Cage of Eu-rocentric Modernity," in Symposium on Richard Shusterman's "Ars Erotica: Sex and Somaes-thetics in the Classical Arts of Love", ed. S. Marino, Foucault Studies 31:2 (2021), 44-60. https://doi.org/10.1017/9780511791888
Shusterman, Richard, "Somaesthetics and the Philosophical Life," in Foucault's Aesthetics of Existence and Shusterman's Somaesthetics: Ethics, Politics, and the Art of Living, ed. V. An-toniol and S. Marino, 121-143. London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2024. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350404885.ch-6
Shusterman, Richard, "Philosophy and the Art of Writing: Responses to a Meta Symposi-um," in Symposium on "Philosophy and the Art of Writing", ed. S. Marino and E. Ro-magnoli, Meta: Research in Hermeneutics, Phenomenology, and Practical Philosophy 16:1 (2024), 302-321.
Srinivasan, Amia, The Right to Sex. London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2020 (ebook ver-sion).
Tenenbaum, Tamara, La fine dell'amore. Amare e scopare nel XXI secolo [2019], trans. A. Bile Spadaccini. Roma: Fandango, 2022.
Zoja, Luigi, Il declino del desiderio. Perché il mondo sta rinunciando al sesso. Torino: Einaudi, 2022.
Téléchargements
Publié-e
Comment citer
Numéro
Rubrique
Licence
(c) Tous droits réservés Stefano Marino 2024
![Licence Creative Commons](http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/4.0/88x31.png)
Cette œuvre est sous licence Creative Commons Attribution - Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale - Pas de Modification 4.0 International.
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.