Hypocrisy
• Noun; the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform; pretense; from Old French ypocrisie, via ecclesiastical or church Latin, from Greek hupokrisis ‘acting of a theatrical part,’ from hupokrinesthai ‘play a part, pretend,’ from hupo ‘under’ + krinein ‘decide, judge.’ Hypocrisy usually implies a gap or difference between what one says and what one does.
We ‘Other’ Victorians
• Phrase from Stephen Marcus’ book The Other Victorians: a Study of Sexuality and Pornography in Mid-Nineteenth-Century England (1966)
Volume III: Le souci de soi (1984); translated into English in 1986 as The Care of the Self.
Volume IV: Les aveux de la chair (incomplete; unpublished); would be translated as The Confessions of the Flesh.
Foucault’s stated objective in questioning and reformulating the dominant “story” about sex and
sexuality in the Modern West
• “Briefly, my aim is to examine the case of a society which has been loudly castigating itself for its hypocrisy for more than a century, which speaks verbosely of its own silence, takes great pains to relate in detail the things it does not say, denounces the powers it exercises, and promises to liberate itself from the very laws that have made it function. […] The question I would like to pose is not, Why are we repressed? but rather, Why do we say, with so much passion and so much resentment against our most recent past, against our present, and against ourselves, that we are repressed” (8)
• Les Mots et les choses. Une archéologie des sciences humaines (1966); translated as The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences (1970).
• “Sexuality was carefully confined; it moved into the home. The conjugal family took custody of it and absorbed it into the serious function of reproduction. On the subject of sex, silence became the rule. The legitimate [meaning married] and procreative couple laid down the lay. The couple imposed itself as model, enforced the norm, safeguarded the truth, and reserved the right to speak while retaining the principle of secrecy. A single locus of sexuality was acknowledged in social space as well as at the heart of every household, but it was a utilitarian and fertile one: the parent’s bedroom” (3).
The Repressive Hypothesis
• REPRESSIVE, adjective; “repression,” noun, from the verb “to repress”: 1) to subdue someone or something by force 2) to restrain or prevent (the expression of a feeling); 3) to suppress (a thought, feeling, or desire) in oneself so that it becomes or remains unconscious; 4) to inhibit the natural development or self-expression of someone or something; from Latin repress- ‘pressed back, checked,’ from the verb reprimere, from re- ‘back’ + premere ‘to press
• CONTRAST: EXPRESSION, TO EXPRESS • HYPOTHESIS: a supposition or proposed explanation made
on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation; from late Latin and, earlier, from Greek hupothesis ‘foundation,’ from hupo ‘under’ + thesis ‘placing.’
Metacriticism or Metacritique
• The criticism of criticism; the examination of the principles, methods, and terms of criticism either in general (as in critical theory) or in the study of particular critical debates
• The Victorians: 1) of or relating to the reign of Victoria, queen of Great Britain and Ireland 1837– 1901 and empress of India 1876–1901; 2) of or relating to the attitudes and values of thisaracterized by a stifling and prudish moral earnestness. (prudish: a person who is or claims to be easily shocked by matters relating to sex or nudity)
Other Major Works by Foucault
• Folie et déraison: Histoire de la folie à l'âge classique (1961); translated, abridged version: Madness and Civilization (1964); complete version: The History of Madness (2006).
• Naissance de la clinique: une archéologie du regard médical (1963); translated as The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception (1973).
Volume I: La volonté de savoir (1976); translated into English in 1978 as The History of Sexuality: An Introduction.
Volume II: L'usage des plaisirs (1984); translated into English in 1985 as The Use of Pleasure.
• Criticism, Critique: the analysis and judgment of the merits and faults of a literary or artistic work (often used negatively, as in the expression of disapproval of someone or something based on perceived faults or mistakes; from “critic,” 1580s, "one who passes judgment," from Medieval French critique (14c.), from Latin criticus "a judge, literary critic," from Greek kritikos "able to make judgments," from krinein "to separate, decide,” related to Greek kritikē tekhnē ‘critical art.’