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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why is the author of "My Secret Life" an interesting example in Foucault's argument?
(a) Because he was part of the institutionalization of sexual discourse.
(b) Because he represented the negative effects of repression.
(c) Because he was turning sex into discourse for his own pleasure.
(d) Because he was a window into the popular social norms of the time.

2. What does Foucault say that the science of sex achieved in the nineteenth century?
(a) The obscuration of truth about sex.
(b) Laying the groundwork for a meticulous scientific course of study.
(c) The study of sex in a detached manner.
(d) The direct confrontation of a social taboo.

3. Which is NOT a center that Foucault recognizes as having produced discourses on sex in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries?
(a) Medicine.
(b) Criminal justice.
(c) Pedagogy.
(d) Monarchy.

4. Which of the following does Foucault NOT say was necessary to subjugate sex at the level of language after the beginning of the 17th century?
(a) Extinguish words that rendered sex too present.
(b) Expunge sex from things that were said
(c) Control sex's free circulation in speech.
(d) The creation of religious edicts against explicit references to sex.

5. What is the connection Foucault makes between the author of "My Secret Life" and the peasant Jouy?
(a) Sex became something to say and to exhaustively put into words.
(b) They were both anomalies to science.
(c) Their actions were symptomatic of repression.
(d) They were both struggling against power mechanisms out of their domain.

6. What did the author of "My Secret Life" write about?
(a) Sexual acts he heard in confession.
(b) Secrets told to him by friends.
(c) The horror he felt at some of his sexual desires.
(d) A scrupulous and detailed account of his sexual episodes.

7. Which of the following is NOT listed as one of the accepted ways to free oneself from the effects of sexual repression?
(a) Transgressing laws.
(b) Abstinence.
(c) Irruption of speech.
(d) Lifting of prohibitions.

8. What does Foucault say has happened to sexual discourse?
(a) It has undergone a recent revolution.
(b) It has gradually started to erode the power paradigm.
(c) It has been subjected to a mechanism of increasing incitement.
(d) It has undergone a process of restriction.

9. Which of the following did NOT happen to the nature of the confession?
(a) It became more vague about any actual sexual act.
(b) Sexual details became central to complete the confession and receive penance.
(c) Became broad in nature to encompass thoughts, desires, and imaginings.
(d) Imposed meticulous rules of self examination.

10. What are the two great procedures for producing the truth about sex?
(a) Psychoanalysis and biology.
(b) The erotic arts and science of sexuality.
(c) Ars erotica and medicalization.
(d) Scientia sexualis and biology.

11. What does Foucault say is the "speaker's benefit?"
(a) Speaking is an effective way to repression.
(b) Speaking about something taboo is a transgression that gives the speaker a sense of power.
(c) Speaking is a form of cleansing and purging.
(d) Speaking gives the illusion of experience and knowledge.

12. Which of the following would Foucault NOT agree was a result of sexual discourse?
(a) Legal sanctions against minor perversions were multiplied.
(b) A norm of sexual development was defined.
(c) The fact of speaking about sex became more important than the moral imperatives imposed.
(d) Sexual irregularity was annexed to mental illness.

13. What happened to the penal and legal codes relating to sexual offenses in the nineteenth century?
(a) The effectiveness of the codes was considered the battleground against vice and evil.
(b) The severity of the codes diminished greatly and often deferred to medicine.
(c) The codes were recognized by the church as a great moral necessity.
(d) The codes transferred from a religious base requiring exorcism to a legal base requiring reform.

14. What does Foucault say about the repressive hypothesis?
(a) That it is part of a general discourse on sex since the seventeenth century.
(b) That is was created as a way to centralize power.
(c) That it is a function of our over analytical society.
(d) It explains the shame many still associate with a sexual existance.

15. Per Foucault, what does our tone of voice tell us when we speak about sexuality?
(a) That we long for more understanding and help.
(b) That we feel we are being subversive.
(c) That we derive sexual pleasure from it.
(d) That we are ashamed of our sexuality.

Short Answer Questions

1. What factor supported and relayed the discourse on sex to become an essential component of society?

2. What does Foucault say are the components of the regime that sustains discourse on sexuality?

3. In what areas of our lives does Foucault say confession in integral in the west?

4. What does Foucault say distinguishes the last three centuries?

5. How did the scheme for transforming sex into discourse become a rule for everyone?

(see the answer keys)

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