Saint Foucault
Towards a Gay Hagiography
ISBN13: 9780195111279ISBN10: 0195111273
Paperback,
256 pages
Dec 1996,
In Stock
Price:
$34.99 (04)Description
Although there is scarcely more than a passing mention of homosexuality in Michel Foucault's scholarly writing he became, after dying of AIDS in 1984, a powerful source of both personal and political inspiration to an entire generation of gay activists. As such, he has acquired mainstream detractors who have systematically distorted and misrepresented this crucial intellectual figure.David M. Halperin's Saint Foucault is an uncompromising and impassioned defense of the late French philosopher and historian. Despite Foucault's statement that his work "had nothing to do with gay liberation," the book portrays him as a galvanizing thinker whose career as a theorist and activist will continue to serve as a model for other gay intellectuals. Halperin argues that his decision to treat sexuality not as a biological or psychological drive but as the product of modern systems of knowledge and power represents a crucial political breakthrough for lesbians and gay men.
Pointing to the withering scrutiny of Foucault by such commentators as Camille Paglia, Richard Mohr, Bruce Bawer, Roger Kimball, and biographer James Miller, Saint Foucault forcefully illustrates the continuing personal, professional, and scholarly vulnerability of all gay activists and intellectuals in the age of AIDS.
Reviews
"Foucault, the worm having turned, needs defenders these days, and Halperin fills the position well."--The Los Angeles Times Book Review
"A demanding, eloquent and caustic book."--Publishers Weekly
About the Author(s)
David M. Halperin is Lecturer in Queer Theory at the University of New South Wales. A founding editor of GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and GayStudies , and a co-editor of The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader , he is the author most notably of One Hundred Years of Homosexuality , which Outweek called "the single most important contribution to the interpretation of gay history in nearly a decade," and general editor of the Oxford series, Ideologies of Desire .
