Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies

Lochrie, Karma.
Desiring Foucault
Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies - Volume 27, Number 1, Winter 1997, pp. 3-16

Duke University Press

Karma Lochrie - Desiring Foucault - Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 27:1 The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 27.1 (1997) 3-16 Desiring Foucault Karma Lochrie In a volume devoted to medieval and early modern desires, the topic of Foucault may seem problematic, for it was Foucault who argued that the rallying point of studies of the history of sexuality "ought not to be sex-desire, but bodies and pleasures." His reason for opposing desire as a category of knowledge about sexuality was made clear in an interview given in 1978. He warned against the use of desire as "a grid of intelligibility, a calibration in terms of normality: 'Tell me what your desire is and I will tell you who you are, whether you are normal or not, and then I can qualify or disqualify your desire.'" The naturalization of desire, according to Foucault, constitutes its danger, its susceptibility to pathologization. In addition, it is the site of unitary notions of identity and the self, and hence, of their regulation. As we know from David Halperin's work, Foucault sought the "desubjectivating" experience of sexuality as a form of resistance against current regimes of sexuality and subjectivity. Nevertheless, Foucault is relevant to this volume, since he is so frequently deployed by medievalists and early modern scholars interested in the history of sexuality. Foucault himself might have found it ironic that his work had become the object of our desire as...